Chapter 27 Wolf-Cat Titan
WOLF-CAT TITAN
“My... face?” Titan scrunched up his face, which made him even more adorable because he looked like a confused cat.
Mathlin tried really hard not to laugh. He really did.
“You, uh. You—ha ha ha!” He clutched his belly and laughed helplessly, until tears leaked from his eyes.
Titan looked even more mystified. Finally, he got out of bed and headed to the bathroom.
“What the hell?!”
Mathlin covered his face and tried to breathe, but he couldn’t because he was still laughing. “Oh gods! The magical cock is real!”
“This isn’t healing,” Titan growled.
“Maybe y-you grew fur under your cast, t-too,” Mathlin wheezed.
Titan stalked back to the bedroom. Mathlin took one look at his grumpy face and broke into a fresh wave of giggles.
Ever so slowly, Titan’s frown turned into a grin. “Fuck. I can’t stay mad when you’re laughing that hard.”
“You’re scary when you have your fangs out, but right now, you just look like a harmless kitty-cat.” Mathlin snickered.
Titan sighed. “I’m never gonna get any respect. Especially from my customers.”
For a second, they stared at each other.
“Fuck,” Titan said fervently. “They’re gonna gossip again.”
“No, no! This is a good thing!”
“How the fuck is this a good thing?” Titan gestured at his face.
“They’ll all show up to see if it’s true,” Mathlin said giddily. “We better have goods ready to sell. Especially the new stuff. We needed more test subjects and paying customers, anyway.”
Titan stared at him for a long moment. Then he shook his head slowly. “Fuck. You’re right, but... Fuck.”
“Everybody has some aches and pains,” Mathlin said. “The brownies will help. They might even spread the word.”
The alpha sighed. “Fine. But I’m not looking forward to showing the pack.”
Mathlin winced. “Come here, I’ll give you a hug.”
From the way Titan perked up, maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing, after all.
Hamilton laughed the loudest of them all. He also whipped out his phone before Titan could stop him, and snapped a picture.
The pack laughed too. Before Titan could get too grumpy, Mathlin grabbed him and dragged him back to his cabin.
“I’m sorry,” Mathlin said guiltily. “I swear I didn’t know this would happen. I’ve never tried the whole ‘magic jizz’ thing before.”
“Did it at least heal something?” Titan grumbled.
“Let me look.”
They sat down at the kitchen table, Mathlin probing Titan’s arm with his healing magic. He found some odd patches of fur under Titan’s cast.
But to his surprise, there were no breaks in either of Titan’s forearm bones.
Mathlin frowned and pushed his senses deeper, studying the flesh that surrounded the previously-broken bones. “Where are they?”
“Where are what?”
“The cracks,” Mathlin said, confused. “Your bones don’t even feel newly healed, they feel like they’ve been strong for a while.”
Titan’s eyebrows crawled up. “So it worked?”
They stared at each other.
“Maybe. You can remove the cast,” Mathlin said doubtfully. “And try lifting some heavy stuff. Slowly.”
Titan pushed out the claws on his other hand and began ripping through the cast. He glanced at his bicep in surprise. “It doesn’t even hurt that much anymore.”
Mathlin frowned. “I need to rework that wound. It’s not healing right.”
“Yeah, I know. But it hurts less than before. I think... Whatever you did to your cum, whatever I swallowed, it helped.”
“The magical healing cock exists,” Hamilton crowed in the next room. “I told you sooooo!”
“You could even bottle your cum and sell it,” Titan said, different emotions warring on his face.
Mathlin shuddered. Letting unknown alphas drink something that came from his body? “No, thanks.”
Was it him, or did Titan look relieved?
When the cast was off, Titan grabbed the nearest thing—a jar of pasta sauce. He lifted it carefully and set it down, testing his grip. Then he hefted a chair off the floor.
Mathlin expected him to wince and drop the chair, but the alpha gently released the chair without looking pained.
Instead, Titan’s face held an intense mix of emotions. “Fuck, Math. This... This is amazing. It worked. My arm’s healed. I thought I had to wait for weeks to save Twin Buns, but you stepped into my life and...”
He looked like he might burst into tears.
Mathlin’s heart squeezed. He took Titan’s healed arm into his hands, still trying to believe that this had actually worked. “I spent all that time making sure your bones were growing right, and with just a bit of cum, it’s just... completely healed? What the heck?”
“You were making sure it healed right,” Titan pointed out.
“With no guidance, the healing would have been fucked. My bicep is proof of that. It’s not magically back to the way it was; your cum just sped up the torn muscles attaching themselves to each other.
But that’s not the best healing. I still need you to set my bicep right again. ”
Mathlin breathed out a sigh of relief. “Oh.”
Titan grinned. And suddenly Mathlin was swept into a tight hug, cradled against Titan’s broad, warm chest.
“I’ve been dreaming about doing this,” Titan rumbled, both his arms wrapped around Mathlin. “Fuck, it feels so good to use my arms again. Feels so good to hold you.”
Titan leaned in and sniffed, his chest expanding as he inhaled Mathlin’s scent.
Mathlin blushed. He’s breathing me in. “Doesn’t your bicep still hurt?”
“A little. I can live with it.” Titan rumbled, running his hand up and down Mathlin’s spine, before brushing his fingers through Mathlin’s hair. “I’ve wanted to touch you for ages. Now I can.”
Mathlin shivered. It wasn’t often that he managed to help people with his magic. He wasn’t powerful enough to do much.
But after several days of helping Titan with the simplest things—dressing, eating, moving things from one spot to another—this felt like victory. Freedom.
“I’m really glad it worked,” Mathlin said. “Even if it gave you cat eyes and whiskers. Hopefully it’s not permanent.”
Titan snorted. “I’ll take the cat face over months of healing. Thank you, sweetheart.”
“Hey, you paid me to.” Mathlin only realized then, that by cutting short Titan’s healing process, it meant he had less of a reason to stick around. Why would Titan continue to hire him?
“Math?” Titan sniffed at him and frowned. “You smell worried. Is there something wrong?”
“Crap! Um, nothing!” Mathlin squeaked. He tried to hug Titan to distract him. “I’m not worried about you firing me or anything! Fuck. Why can’t I keep my mouth shut?”
But Titan only hugged him more tightly. “I’m not letting you go.
” The alpha pulled back and looked into Mathlin’s eyes.
“If you haven’t noticed... I’m trying to court you.
Obviously I’d prefer it if you want to continue working at Twin Buns, because you’re amazing there, but I’ll understand if you don’t want to. ”
Relief loosened Mathlin’s limbs. “I’ll keep working at the bakery,” he said eagerly. “Who else is going to help you with Everdin?”
Titan froze. Then he thumped their heads together. “Fuck. Everdin. I can’t believe I forgot about her.”
It wasn’t just Mathlin, Hamilton, and the pack—Jannie loved Titan’s new cat-like appearance, too.
“Goo goo,” she babbled, reaching for Titan’s face. Her eyes were partially shifted—yellow with slit-pupils—and her stubby tail was sticking up straight in delight.
Mathlin could’ve melted when Titan pushed his face into her little hand.
“Hey, pup,” Titan rumbled.
Jannie purred, an answering rumble. Titan lit up.
Mathlin was struck by a sudden thought: Titan would be amazing as a dad.
More than that—Titan would be amazing as Jannie’s dad.
That was... almost overwhelming to think about. But in a good way.
“You’re not going to steal Jannie, are you?” Mathlin blurted. Then he wished he could’ve shoved those words back down his throat. “Who accuses their boss of baby-stealing?” he moaned, rocking on his feet.
“Math, I’ve just put a pup inside you. Why would I steal Jannie when I’ve already got one baking in your oven?” As he said that, Titan’s gaze darkened.
Mathlin shivered. “Because Jannie’s special!”
“Are you implying that this one isn’t?” Titan growled.
“Crap. That’s not what I meant! It’s just that Jannie is automatically more valuable to kidnappers because she’s a dragon.”
“And I’m not a kidnapper.” Titan slipped his hand under Mathlin’s shirt, covering his belly. “This pup here is mine.”
That possessiveness sent a jolt down Mathlin’s spine. It made his omega instincts perk up and pay attention.
It must have shown on his face. Titan crowded further into Mathlin’s space.
“Mine,” Titan rumbled, skimming his fingertips across Mathlin’s abdomen. “You smell like mine, too.”
Mathlin whimpered, tipping his head back to offer his neck.
Titan’s pupils dilated. He growled loudly, stroking Mathlin’s throat to leave his scent there.
Then he leaned in, rubbing his odd whiskers against Mathlin’s hair.
“Mine. I’m loving the whiskers; they let me sense everything so much better. Including you.”
When he licked Mathlin, his tongue rasped against Mathlin’s skin like a cat’s tongue.
“Wow,” Mathlin squeaked. “Maybe we should—”
The bells jangled on the front door. Someone stepped into Twin Buns.
All of them turned, even Jannie who was chewing on Mathlin’s shirt.
It was Mr. Abercrombie again, wizened and old. His fuzzy eyebrows shot up when he saw Titan. “Titan, boy! What happened to your face?”
Titan opened his mouth.
Mathlin spoke first. “There was an accident! Three nights ago, Titan got into a fight with a sphinx that descended from the great Pharaohs of Egypt. The sphinx cursed him but also cured his arms.”
Somehow, Abercrombie’s eyebrows crawled higher. “A sphinx? Where is it now? Is it running wild around here?”
“We struck a deal with it,” Mathlin said gravely. “We traded Titan’s secret family recipe for his safety, and in return, it promised to heal him and leave the state.”