“To mate,” Emory’s mother said proudly.
“To spend time with Cameron…and then go meet his family,” Emory said.
“After they mate,” his mother repeated.
Christopher managed to keep a straight face, but Jo was sporting a shit eating grin. “Congrats, cuz. You deserve all the happiness in the world and, if this meeting is anything to go by, I’d say you also deserve some time off.”
Christopher and Emory’s mother nodded like a couple of dashboard bobble heads, and Emory sighed.
When he arrived home, he sadly did not find Cameron waiting in their bed. Instead, he found him and Ronan curled up on their couch. ‘Their’ being Emory and Cameron’s, notCameron and Ronan’s, no matter if the past several weeks seemed to show otherwise.
He settled in with two of his favorite people and told them everything he’d learned from Jo. Despite his lion’s grumbling at not finding their mate in bed, Emory was grateful to have Ronan there to fill in some gaps in the story. It turned out Jo had reached out to Ronan because they hadn’t wanted to come out to both Emory and his mother over text or email. They trusted Ronan to keep their identity private until Jo was able to share it themself. While it had made coordinating logistics a nightmare and had forced Ronan to take up a near constant position at the end of Emory’s couch, Emory was ultimately grateful for how their meeting went. Things probably would have gone differently if his first time talking to Jo had been over email or phone.
Cameron did his best to contain his excitement, but it was clear he was more than thrilled to have a nonbinary person in their circle. Although Jo and Emory were a long way from being friends again, they would always be family, and soon Cameron would be officially joining that family.
“So, it sounds like you’ve passed the final mating hurdle,” Ronan said almost two hours later.
Emory settled his hand on Cameron’s head, where it was resting in his lap. He’d fallen asleep a few minutes ago, but neither Emory nor Ronan had made any move to leave. “Well, we’ve met my family, shared I love you’s, agreed to move in together, and now, I have approved vacation time to go meet his family.”
“You just need to bite him,” Ronan said, and Emory suppressed an eyeroll.
“We still need to have a few more conversations, and then?—”
Ronan had pulled his lips back and was miming biting.
Emory threw a pillow at him, and he threw one back, waking up Cameron, who immediately wanted in on the pillow fight.
Despite their best intentions, the conversations they needed to have didn’t happen all at once. Instead, they seemed to pop up at random times. The first conversation, about living habits and chore distribution, happened while boxing up Cameron’s apartment. They discussed decor and style in the paint aisle at the hardware store and had a frank discussion about finances while lying on Cameron's threadbare couch.
They were able to sell or donate most of Cameron’s large furniture and, at Cameron’s insistence, they sold Emory’s couch as well. They had a lengthy debate over fabric at IKEA and finally purchased a couch that was a lot less stuffy and easier to clean.
Some of the other things they needed to discuss were actually decided for them. Shay only had a limited window to take time off, so they bought tickets to go see Cameron’s family at the end of May. On one of the family phone calls that Emory was invited to join, Shay made a passing comment that Cameron had always wanted a summer wedding. Emory thought to himself that a year was a good amount of time to plan a wedding.
In early May, Emory came home to find a bound research paper on shifter mating sitting on the kitchen table. It was written by Shay, and a few pages were tabbed. Emory closed his office door and read through the whole document that evening, highlighter in hand. He had been curious how octopuses mated, but he hadn’t looked it up in case Cameron wanted to be the one to tell him. Emory found it deeply moving that his sister had included octopuses in her mating research. The paper was very detailed, but the section on octopuses was written with tenderness that shone off the page.
When he and his lion felt they had read as much as they could, they went and found Cameron. He was sitting on the edge of their bed, wearing a satin robe Emory had bought for him asa housewarming gift. It was the same navy blue as the sweater Cameron had worn on New Year's Eve.
As Emory entered the room, Cameron spread his legs, revealing the navy blue panties.
“You’re gorgeous,” Emory said, reverence making his words come out low and breathy.
“I’mready,” Cameron said, and Emory was hit by waves of love from his omega.
“I’m ready, too.”
“I’m assuming you got the assigned reading?” Cameron asked, the humor barely masking the quiver in his voice.
Emory kneeled between Cameron’s legs, so he was slightly below eye level with his fated mate. “I did, and I read the entire thing. Shay’s research is impressive, and the care she took in writing the octopus section…” He had to clear his throat before continuing. “I really appreciate you both sharing that with me.”
Cameron squeezed his hand. “Sometimes she acts all aloof and like she doesn’t have a care in the world, but I know she loves me. She wanted to make sure we both had a good experience.”
Emory stood up to press a firm kiss to Cameron’s forehead. “I have no doubt we will, love, because it’s you and me, and we were fated to be together.”
Cameron helped Emory undress, stroking his hands over every inch of exposed skin, causing goosebumps to erupt all over Emory’s body. Cameron did his best to soothe them away, rubbing first his hands and then his lips over Emory’s chest and abs. When Cameron tried to drop to his knees, Emory gently grabbed his shoulder.
“It’s my turn, love. Lie down.”
Cameron followed his instructions, and Emory descended on him, pressing their bodies together before slowly working his way down Cameron’s chest and belly, removing his panties withhis teeth. The smell of his slick nearly did Emory in. He forced himself to stay the course, and he traced kisses and soft touches down Cameron’s legs until he was squirming against the bed.
