CHAPTER EIGHT #2
My eyes misted over but I refused to give in to remembering that desperate loneliness that gnawed away at my thoughts whenever I wasn’t with Lero.
Instead, I kissed him and wondered what the clear magical fluid flowing from the claiming gland on his shoulder would taste like.
That’s where the magic was stored in alpha and omega true-mates.
The clear stuff came out and the other person lapped it up.
It let us know just enough about our mate – the mate we chose so long ago – that we didn’t feel crazy for being head-over-heels in love so soon after meeting them.
When the kiss broke, Lero swept his hair to one side and tilted his head so that I had free reign of his shoulder.
I kissed the soft, warm curve of his neck down to his shoulder where his claiming gland lived.
I kissed it tenderly. Time pressed in on us but some things couldn’t be rushed.
A little moan escaped his lips as mine brushed against his gland.
My bear nuzzled the inside of my ribs, silently begging me to get a move on it because he wouldn’t be able to reach out to the bear who dwelt within Lero until the vows were complete.
Borrowing my bear’s incisor, I bit down, puncturing the taut skin over Lero’s claiming gland just enough to free the first drops of the clear magical fluid.
Caramel. My mate tasted like Caramel. I lapped up the first few drops hungrily and memories flooded into my brain.
I saw his parents and other relatives. I saw his friends or at least how he tried to fit in with the people where he was born.
Most of them didn’t shift. Once in high school, one of those kids teased him about shifting and when Lero told him to shut up, he shoved him back into a row of lockers.
Lero cold cocked him and the kid crumpled.
I felt the terror that spread through my mate’s body as the bully hit the floor.
The kid was flown out to Hemlock Memorial Hospital and survived but Lero learned about his own strength that day.
He also avoided non-shifters like the plague and treated them like glass when he had to be around them because to him they might as well have been made of priceless crystal.
All that stuff culminated with him moving to Nightshade Bear Territory.
Here he found his place in the world and I hoped to the old elves and bears and gods and whoever else might be listening that I one day would get to live here with him.
As soon as I pulled away, Lero sank his teeth into my shoulder where my claiming gland was.
Only nothing happened. Not one drop of anything spilled out.
Not blood. Not the clear magical fluid. I guess, this was the one thing I actually needed my body for.
I opened my mouth to apologize – to somehow make this right.
Lero shook his head and held my face in his hands.
“Hey, it’s okay. It’s alright. We’ll finish when this is settled. I’m just happy you’ll hear me, even if I can’t hear you. That way you’re not alone and you can find me when you reappear. Okay? This is still a good thing! A very good thing!”
There was a potion made by jaguars that crossed Lero’s mind. He’d have some trouble getting his paws on it but he was almost ready to try because push had come to shove.
“Thank you,” I whispered and kissed him again.
Our bodies ground together, seeking union and pleasure between us.
I lost myself for real then as Lero’s pleasure rained down on me over that half-opened claiming vows link.
He was happy in this moment and that was the feeling I wanted to carry with me forever – his mirth and pleasure.
How much he loved me. Love. The word thudded around my skull as Lero moved over me.
I held onto his firm ass cheeks and dug my heels into the floor, thrusting up hard to meet his movements.
“Vallis,” he whispered my name over and over as everything in his sexy body drew up tight.
He was so fucking close to cumming and that made my dick throb harder inside of him.
I thrust up, sinking as deep into him as I could.
He trembled and called out my name again.
I could’ve died listening to him speak it.
His lips crushed against mine and then pulled away as a roar escaped his mouth.
He came hard, making a glorious mess of us both.
I kept thrusting up into the warm, slick sanctuary of his body, chasing down the pleasure that only he could give me now.
Keeping my eyes on his face, still contorted in pleasure, head thrown back.
He was a fucking sight to behold. I couldn’t hold back a second longer.
Everything I held back since meeting him reeled through my body and I came hard inside him.
He kissed me over and over, clinging to me until the thrill and energy snatched me from his body and his arms.
“Lero, I love you,” I whispered as it happened, praying he heard me.
“I love you too, Vallis,” he said, his voice more warm and sleepy than sad.
Good. I didn’t want him to be sad. No matter what happened, I didn’t want him to be sad because my own happiness dwelt within the bear that magic kept snatching me away from.