Chapter 30 A Proper Courtship
A PROPER COURTSHIP
Titan frowned, wracking his mind. “Did I forget something? What do I owe you?”
“I’ll tell you later,” Mathlin sang, tugging on Titan’s hand to lead him back into the bakery.
Titan hesitated. “I should help with the slugs—”
“I think they’re okay,” Mathlin said, looking around.
Titan followed his gaze and saw their friends fighting the slugs, which were starting to fight back. Uriel blasted through five slugs at the same time. Titan’s brothers flung the slug carcasses onto a growing pile.
“I want to check on Jannie,” Mathlin said.
Jannie. Titan’s focus snapped back to the bakery. “Right.” He followed Mathlin into Twin Buns, frowning at the back door. “How the hell did Wildcart get out? I remember closing that door.”
“Valberdon might’ve used magic to open it.” Mathlin shuddered. “I’d rather not think about that.”
Titan growled. “I’ll ask Uriel for an anti-tampering spell.”
Mathlin nodded fervently. “Thanks.”
Titan gave Mathlin a quick side-hug. Then they chased down Wildcart, who thought they were playing again. They spent ten minutes racing around the bakery, before Mathlin finally got Jannie back in his arms. Jannie giggled and kicked.
“I’m so fucking glad we’re no longer in danger,” Titan muttered.
“Language,” Mathlin said, grinning cheekily when Titan raised a disbelieving eyebrow.
“Of course, my dear,” Titan said dryly.
Mathlin blushed. So beautiful.
“Oh! I have an idea,” Mathlin said. “We should prepare some drinks and snacks for everyone who came to help.”
“That is a good idea.” Titan rumbled, pleased. “You have the best ideas, sweetheart.”
The big feelings in his chest swelled bigger.
Mathlin beamed. “Of course my ideas are amazing. It’s why your big wolfy butt purrs for me.” Then he paused, making a face. “Ugh. I don’t know why my mouth said that.”
Titan laughed and turned Mathlin toward the kitchen. “Me neither, but I love—having you around.”
That had been close. Titan swallowed, his heart thumping.
Mathlin peeked at him from the corner of his eye, his face turning pink. After a while, he spoke quietly. “I was worried for you, you know. When you jumped in front of me to take that blow.”
He patted down Titan’s chest, but the bruise from that attack had already healed thanks to Mathlin’s accelerated healing spell.
Titan shook his head. “Math, that was nothing. I was terrified when I landed on you. You’re so... so tiny compared to me. I thought I’d killed you when I landed.”
Now that he had time to mull over those events, they chilled him to the bone. He could’ve lost Mathlin so easily, in a single moment of bad luck.
Titan’s hands shook. He pulled Mathlin and Jannie into his arms, tucking his nose into Mathlin’s hair. Just breathing him in. Proving to himself that Math was alive, that no one was going to steal him away.
Mathlin sagged against him. “Oh, Ti. I’m okay.”
Titan held him for several long moments. He gingerly checked Mathlin’s head again, then the rest of his body. “I wouldn’t have forgiven myself if anything happened to you.”
Mathlin scowled and leaned back with a glower. “It wasn’t your fault. It was Valberdon’s.”
“Even so.” Titan sighed. “At least that wretched stain of a man is dead.”
“Yeah.” Mathlin sighed too. “For years, he was always at the back of my mind. I always worried that he would track me down somehow. But now he’s gone. And it’s... such a relief. I don’t have to worry about him anymore.”
Titan pulled him close and rubbed his back. “That’s what I want for you.”
“Thank you,” Mathlin whispered.
“No, don’t thank me, sweetheart. That’s what alphas are for, right? To make sure you get all the good things in life?”
Mathlin looked up at him and grinned. “Not every alpha thinks that way. You’re the best.”
Titan perked up. “So when we talked about you staying on as a permanent employee at Twin Buns... Did you really mean it?”
Mathlin nodded. “If there’s space here for me.”
“Always,” Titan growled, unspeakably relieved. “The pack loves you, too. Remember Yasmin laughing at the scene we made during her party?”
Mathlin grinned. “That was so good.”
“Yeah.” Titan grinned back. “Now that my arms are finally working again, I’m going to build you the nest you deserve.”
“But you’ve already built me a nest.”
Titan scoffed. “That? Math, that was the bare minimum. Let me show you the nest I want my omega to have.”
Mathlin flushed pink. Titan reached down, rubbing Mathlin’s belly.
Somewhere in there, Titan’s pup was growing slowly but surely.
Mathlin had said the pup wasn’t hurt in his fall, but until Titan could feel the pup for himself, hear it with his own ears, he was going to keep worrying.
And there wasn’t much he could do, short of asking Mathlin to check on it.
Mathlin would probably snap at him if he asked too many times.
For now, he had to distract himself.
“C’mon, let’s put together some snacks for everyone out there.”
To Titan and Mathlin’s delight, the samples led to several full-pan orders of the pain relief brownies.
“It needs more research, but I think omegas in labor would really appreciate them too,” Mathlin said a few days later, after they had baked and delivered the brownies.
He had been waking up alongside Titan to help out at the bakery, Jannie sleeping in her playpen nearby while they rolled out dough.
“Nibbles of chocolatey pain relief. Who wouldn’t want that? ”
There was already some research done on whether these herbs were safe for pregnant omegas, so Titan felt good about the idea. “I love it. We’ll work that into the website.”
Slyly, Mathlin said, “I noticed that you haven’t tried to sell more of your ‘cream’.”
Titan grimaced. “Yeah. I was hoping to stop with that. Is it something you want me to continue doing?”
Mathlin shook his head. “I like having your cum all to myself. Deep inside, dripping down my thighs.”
“Fuck.” Titan shoved those images out of his mind before all his blood could swoop south. “Math, sweetheart. I’m working on your nest. The only hard thing I want right now is my hammer.”
“Is it... hard enough to pound nails?” Mathlin snickered, that little sneak.
“Is your... kitty ready for some pounding?”
Mathlin gasped loudly. “How dare you!”
Titan laughed when Mathlin shifted into a black cat and leaped at him. “You said not to make pussy jokes, and that word has not crossed my lips!”
“Roar!” Mathlin said. “You know what I meant!”
“You know that by pretending to roar, you’ve only become more adorable, right?” The moment Mathlin climbed onto his shoulder, Titan scritched his chin.
Mathlin purred and rubbed himself against Titan’s fingers. “I want to be a fierce omega. A big, dangerous cat.”
“Your words are dangerous,” Titan said.
Mathlin groaned and butted his head against Titan’s ear. “My words are going to kill me.”
“I’ll make sure they don’t,” Titan growled. He grabbed his screwdriver and tightened a few screws on the shelves—those had rounded corners and edges so Mathlin wouldn’t accidentally hurt himself if he bumped into them.
The nest now had several upgrades—a proper mattress for its base, blankets and pillows that weren’t borrowed from the pack, so Mathlin could snuggle with them indefinitely.
Titan had also added small speakers to play music, and little storage boxes filled with snacks and drinks.
He had installed soft reading lights and a couple of bookshelves, along with boxes for toys and baby supplies in case Jannie was in the nest too.
“What do you think?” Titan asked when he had set aside his screwdriver. “I can paint the wood any color you want, or oil it and leave it the way it is.”
“Oil the wood,” Mathlin said with a snicker. “I like seeing the natural grain.”
“Definitely my kind of omega,” Titan rumbled, turning to nuzzle Mathlin. “What about the rest of the nest? Is there anything you’d like me to add?”
Mathlin leaped onto the middle of the nest, flopping onto the pillows. “I want your scent in it. Your used clothes, all musky and sweaty. I think... It would be nice if it smells like our bed.”
Our bed. Titan’s heart leaped. “You mean, like our mating?”
That was what they did in bed most nights, long hours of hard mating, and Mathlin knotted on Titan with his body soft and pliant after several releases.
“Yes,” Mathlin purred. He looked Titan up and down. “You’re wearing too much. If you’re naked, your scent will stick to the nest more easily.”
“Is that a ploy to get me naked?” Titan grinned and began stripping anyway. “We’re not mating while you’re cat-shaped, though.”
“Oh. That’s right.” With a lazy stretch, Mathlin shifted back into a human. “Better?”
“Much.” Titan growled, climbing into the nest to grasp Mathlin’s thighs. He spread his omega wide open. “Now I can make you smell like me.”
“I was talking about the nest smelling like you!” Mathlin purred and wriggled, trying to raise his hips.
“It’ll smell like us when I’ve claimed you again.” Titan pinned him down and slotted their mouths together. The moment he did, Mathlin melted beneath him, growing needy and pliant.
“Alpha, please.”
Fuck if that didn’t make Titan hard in seconds. “Please fill you? I fully intend to,” Titan growled against his lips. “I’m going to stuff you full and breed you, make you drip with cum. Mine.”
Then he bit into Mathlin’s shoulder, and Mathlin was completely his.
“Math,” Titan said two weeks later. “I’m going to do something I promised Hamilton I’d do. Please cover your ears and try not to listen. Or watch.”
Like he expected, Mathlin cupped his hands loosely over his ears, and opened his eyes wide.
Titan sighed. Hamilton cackled.
“Well?” Hamilton said, waving impatiently. “Get started!”
With a long-suffering sigh, Titan opened the pink book—699 Pickup Lines For Your Wriggly Heart Muffin.
“Mathlin,” he said solemnly. “You are the light of my life, the light in my eyes. When you’re here, you shine so bright that I walk into furniture and stub my toe.”
Mathlin cringed. Hamilton pressed his hands to his heart and swooned.
Titan flipped to another page. “You’re so magical that your love wand fills my heart with emotions. You may stab your meat stick into my chest and pump my heart with it. It will cause my heart to gush and my love will go everywhere. Like the blood that’s also flowing out.”
“Oh gods,” Mathlin groaned. “How did that make it into the book?”
“I don’t fucking know,” Titan said. “But please look away for this next part.”
Obviously, Mathlin did not.
Titan sighed and set down the book. He bent his knees and folded his arms, flapping them like a chicken.
“Mathlin,” he sang. There was no tune to accompany the song, so Titan made up his own.
It sounded terrible. “You’re a chicken and I’m a fish.
We’re both animals and we like to live. The way you’re so easy to love, it makes us go together like surf and turf. ”
Mathlin clapped his hand over his mouth, but there was no hiding his loud snort.
Hamilton was all curled up and cackling, tears flowing down his cheeks.
Titan sighed. “I don’t owe you any more, right?”
“I don’t know,” Hamilton wheezed. “I’ll always take more pickup lines as payment.”
Mathlin perked up. “You owe me something too!”
“That’s right.” Titan frowned. Despite Mathlin’s claim, he hadn’t told Titan what it was he owed, even though Titan had scrounged through his own memories multiple times. “What do I owe you?”
“Letting me ride you as a wolf!” Mathlin bounced on his heels. “You’d be the horse and I’d ride you on your back. Uh. I mean, you’d be on all fours—” Mathlin buried his face in his hands. “I would ride you like a pony—”
“There’s just no way to say it without it sounding weird, is there?” Titan said dryly.
“No,” Mathlin wailed. “I just want to ride you like a man rides a horse—”
Hamilton clutched his sides and howled.
Titan took pity on his omega. “Sweetheart, I get what you’re trying to say. It’s okay. Here, let me.”
He glanced around the bakery. It was almost closing time, so no one was pulling into the parking lot. Titan shrugged out of his clothes, basking in the way Mathlin’s eyes lit up and grew hazy, roving over his body.
Titan preened and flexed his muscles. Then he reached inward for the shift, so fur bristled across his skin and his face lengthened into a snout.
Mathlin shivered. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing you as a wolf.”
Titan flicked his tail and stood taller. “Come ride me.”
Mathlin giggled. He threw his leg over Titan’s haunches and grasped fistfuls of his fur, yelping when Titan began to move. “Can Jannie ride on you too?”
Titan’s heart skipped. “Of course.”
He padded over to Jannie’s playpen; Mathlin scooped her out and set her in front of himself.
Having both of them on his back... It was amazing. It felt like something that was entirely Titan’s, his to hoard. Jannie patted Titan’s fur and tugged at it, her little feet kicking.
“Don’t kick Titan, hon,” Mathlin murmured, squeezing Titan with his legs. “Be nice, or the big bad wolf will bite you!”
“Hey, I don’t bite babies,” Titan said. “It’s fine. Her kicking doesn’t hurt.”
Mathlin’s voice was soft when he said, “If you say so.”
Titan carried them through the bakery. “One day, when I have a harness that we can put Jannie in, I’ll take you on a run through the forest. Don’t want you falling off.”
“I’ll look forward to that,” Mathlin said. “Do you want me riding you as a cat?”
“Cat or human, it doesn’t matter,” Titan rumbled. He wanted to have Mathlin as a cat curled up on his back, too. “If you want to shift into a cat now, I’d be honored to carry you.”
Mathlin set Jannie on the floor and shifted. Jannie copied him and shifted into a kitten; Mathlin picked her up by the scruff and hopped onto Titan’s back.
“How adorable,” Hamilton cooed. He had been recording videos on his phone for the past several minutes. Titan didn’t mind—he also wanted a copy of those videos.
Titan trotted around the bakery, before howling at the ceiling. Mathlin yowled; Jannie yowled too, her voice tiny and high-pitched.
“I could melt from all this cuteness,” Titan said.
“Not before you tell me why your dads named you Titan,” Mathlin replied. “You said you’d tell me!”
Titan grinned wolfishly and wagged his tail. “Soon.”
Mathlin tried to roar; so did Jannie. “No fair!”
“Hey, I’ve got to save some intrigue for later,” Titan said.