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“Do you want kids? I’m not on birth control or anything… I mean I think there are condoms and stuff here. I never really loaded up because it’s been so long since Liam had his vision that I started to give up hope that you’d ever show up.”

“I’d love to see tiny kits running around who look like you,” he grinned, cupping my face with his hand.

“They might be dragon hatchlings like my family,” I reminding him, leaning in closer to him.

“And you? Do you fly?”

“Nope,” I shook my head. “I’m a land fox.”

“Good. You can help me keep my feet on the ground but yes, I know what soul bites can do. They almost always guarantee kits. We can use condoms if you want to wait. I understand that I’m probably not the alpha you imagined arriving… At least not in this condition.”

“For someone fighting zombies for the past few years you look good,” I said. “But I get what you’re saying. That’s why I asked. If babies would be too much, we’ll find a condom. I’ll find one even if I have to search every house in this village or take a train to the store.”

“I don’t think they…” Arken started and stopped. “I think I want to live. Obviously, I wanted to live because I kept fighting, but I think I want to live not survive. Before the curse, I wanted to find you. I wanted a big family and a garden. I wanted a life that made me feel alive and grateful every day. I still want that. I think my only choices are dwelling forever and becoming paralyzed by what I remember or shoving forward into life hard and trying to have those things. If you don’t want kits that’s a different story, but that’s the life I always wanted back when I believed I could ever have anything resembling a normal life.”

“I want that too. Maybe not a houseful straight away. Maybe just start with one or two,” I teased, leaning in close enough for another kiss. “But I do. I want that life too. Here or in Heartville. It doesn’t matter. As long as I’m with you.”

Arken’s chin traced my cheek, and I let out a long, slow breath. My dick was throbbing again now. If I held my breath, I could’ve counted my thrumming pulse out. He leaned in and kissed me softly at first. My lips opened under his and his warm, moist tongue slid into my mouth. As our tongues danced back and forth, I rolled over onto my back and pulled him on top of me, wanting to feel squashed into the mattress. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he kissed me harder, his teeth grazing against my lips.

Reaching between our bodies, I took his dick in my hand and stroked him. My fist moved soft and slow at first but picked up speed as his hips thrusted. With each thrust he made through my fingers the fire inside me burnt brighter for him. I imagined over and over how it would feel for his big, girthy dick to push into my body and stay there, moving and thrusting until neither of us could think straight any longer.

When I couldn’t take the heat from the kissing or my own fantasies any longer, I gave Arken one last squeeze and led him home to my omegahole. He growled above me, his body tensing in pleasure as I rubbed the thick head of his cock against my slick hole, teasing us both. He thrust forward and I swallowed hard as the hard tip I’d been teasing slid into me. A delightful shiver ran down my spine and he thrust forward again, feeding me more of his cock. My back arched as his dick brushed against all the good places inside me as it made room for itself inside me.

I wrapped my legs around him and squeezed his ass, urging him to keep moving, because I needed more of him. I needed all of him. I waited so long to meet him – to hold him like this. I waited for the Halloween night that he showed up to claim me as his own.

“I don’t know what the bites will show you,” he whispered against my lips as if the thought just occurred to him.

“I can handle it,” I held him closer as I spoke. “I’m not saying the curse isn’t horrible. I’d never undermine what you went through, but I can handle it. If that’s the only thing standing between us and having our mating link and being fully bonded in this lifetime, I can handle it.”

He kissed me again, softer this time as if he had to be gentler so I could have that strength to handle what the magic behind the claiming vows would show me. The claiming vows were the oldest magical ritual I knew of. Maybe the oldest in existence. Only I wouldn’t want to be quoted in a magic book saying that because one day someone would probably find one that was older.

The ritual was so simple too. Everyone with the Alpha/omega gene had a claiming gland on their shoulder – right there on their trap muscle. For most of our lives nothing happened with it. The claiming gland merely lived there and waited for when our true-mate response happened. That only happened when we crossed paths with the person we chose in the Other World before all this Earthside nonsense started up. They were our other half – the one we chose before we ever incarnated here. They were- for a lack of a better term – the mate to our soul. When we met our other half, those claiming glands filled up with clear magical fluid that held just enough of our memories that when drank the other person wouldn’t feel so crazy for loving us right away. It bridged the gap like a cliff notes version of what happened since we were last together. You could never guess what the magic would choose to show your mate, but it was usually the highlights of your life or the things that would most help them to understand you now.

Even knowing that when I bit Arken the magic might show me zombies didn’t stop me from breaking the kiss and searching out his swollen claiming gland even as our hips rocked. A moan murmured over my lips, and I placed a kiss on the taut skin over his gland and he moaned too. I had to show Arken not only was he safe here but that his past wasn’t too much for me. All the older adults back in Heartville had horror stories – wars, battles, attacks, and everything in between. My sire used to have the magic to hold souls inside injured bodies until help came. He used it up to save his best friend who almost died saving my parents while my carrier was pregnant with me. Even then, I had to be tough. Besides, this was easier. There was a door between me and the zombies. Hell the door was probably gone by now, leaving those undead suckers no way to get to us.

I licked and kissed his claiming gland while his dick rocked inside me. Every little move he made brushed against my nerve endings, sending little electric bolts throughout my body. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d let someone inside me. I’d been a bit too obsessed with figuring out how to make Halloween work. How to get Arken here. I was obsessed with him before I even knew his name.

“You’re not too much for me,” I whispered to him, my lips hovering above his squishy claiming gland. “You or your past. I can’t take away what happened to you, but you’ll never have to deal with it alone.” I didn’t give him time to answer. His claiming gland was too close to my mouth and he smelled too enticing. My fox was too excited. I needed this. Hell, we needed this. So, I borrowed my fox’s vulpine canine and bit into Arken’s gland, breaking the skin in a quick strike. He growled and as my fox’s tooth shifted back into my own, I was rewarded with clear magical fluid running from his gland. I lapped up the cinnamon vanilla tasting memories. Obizad. The word bounced around my head before any images filled my eyes. That’s where my alpha came from. It was a big world. Once upon a time it had been a thriving world too. It wasn’t too unlike Earthside even if a lot of things had different names. The shifters there lived lives much like ours. Then the curse came. It crept in slowly surprising doctors and guards alike. Scientists or magic users couldn’t figure out where it had come from or what its purpose was. One by one it took so many people. It spread like a wildfire and for over a year Arken didn’t see another shifter until he came here. I saw his life before the curse with his family and his friends and then I saw it die out as if someone had pressed the fast forward button on a video.

“My poor alpha,” I said before I could stop the words from tumbling out of my mouth. “My poor Arken.” I kissed him before he had time to answer me. I didn’t want him to say the apology that danced on the tip of his tongue. He didn’t need to apologize for all the bad things that had happened to him. He was here with me now – safe from the zombies and everything else.

As we kissed, his dick swelled up inside me. We kept moving together and for a moment I swore I was imagining it.

“Knotting,” my fox reminded me.

I wasn’t imagining it at all. He was growing bigger and bigger inside me, locking himself in place. I wiggled as much as I could, looking for the best place but biology chose before I could. Still, it wasn’t a bad place. My thoughts reeled and my heart thrummed against my ribs at the expanded pressure. Above me, Arken breathed heavily. His knotted dick was getting squeezed and hugged tight and it made him want to thrust more and more. Our mating link was only half open because he hadn’t bitten me yet, but I still received impressions and stray thoughts.

“You’re really big,” I smirked against his lips.

“I’m… I hope you’re not hurting,” he said.

“No,” I shook my head. “A little overwhelmed but like with a good bite of chocolate or when the first sip of morning coffee hits your soul. Just---Just this sensation lasts longer.”

Arken held my face in his warm hands and kissed me softly.

“You can claim me. You don’t have to wait until we can move again,” I told him. “We can finish the claiming vows.” I dropped my legs to rest on either side of him and a moan fluttered out of him at the slight change of position. I bit my lip because his pleasure rained down on me too. “I want to finish the loop between us.”

“As my mate wishes,” Arken smiled and kissed me one more time before turning his attention to the claiming gland on my shoulder. He kissed his way there taking his time since we didn’t know how long we were fated to be knotted together. I sank into the bed, reveling in his warm mouth and lips showering me in affection on their way to my shoulder.