CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Lero
Nightshade Bear Territory
We went home the day after Vallis roared at Bane.
The walk from the Other World gateway took less time than I expected but that might’ve been because I was with Vallis and my thoughts were already on our cub.
It would soon be time to den down. Thankfully, I could do my job from home.
I might not leave it for months. Except if Vallis wanted to.
He’d spent enough time being locked up for a lifetime.
We arrived home after dark and just in time to crash into bed.
I curled up with Vallis, still thankful that he’d be there without a doubt when I woke up in the morning.
I woke up before Vallis the next morning and made breakfast. Normally, after a hard week, I’d go to Grandpa’s for breakfast but everyone was getting ready for Mori’s going away party.
Under different circumstances, I’d be bummed out that no one was talking about our mating feast. Only, Vallis needed time to recover and I wasn’t sure being surrounded by everyone and being the center of attention was the way to go about it.
I wasn’t even sure he’d want to go to Mori’s going away party.
Though, I’d lost count of how many going away parties Grandpa had thrown for Uncle Mori.
“Too many to count,” my bear sounded off inside my thoughts. “Way too many to count.”
“Morning,” Vallis yawned from the kitchen doorway as I set the food out on the table.
He wore green and black plaid pajama bottoms and nothing else.
His bed head stuck up in every direction and his eyes were about half open.
I’d already made coffee and tea because he’d gotten used to the hospital serving both. “Smells good.”
“I’d hope so. I’ve been cooking for an hour,” I laughed.
“Wasn’t talking about that. Talking about you,” he grinned.
Bane hadn’t mentioned whether or not Vallis was cleared for sex and somehow, I’d found myself too shy to ask. I’d check his discharge papers later.
“Gotta eat first,” I said, buying time.
He crossed the room, his steps surer than I’d ever seen, and pulled me close. We shared a long, slow kiss that stirred up everything inside of me. His tongue slipped into my mouth, warm and alive, and against my better judgment I wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
“Did they clear you?” I pulled away from the kiss to ask.
“Bee told me to take it easy and rest if I got tired.”
“He said that about romping?” I asked, arching a brow.
“It’s not my heart that’s the problem mate. My organs are healthy as always because of my bear’s hibernation genes. It’s my muscles that get tired.”
“Well, that thing poking me is a muscle,” I teased.
“Well, it’s not tired.”
“Is it hungry?”
“Maybe, but it doesn’t have a mouth,” he smirked and kissed me again.
I stood firm ready to take on his weight if he got tired or something gave out. Vallis was strong but even the strongest muscles suffered from being buried alive.
“Sooner or later, you have to stop worrying about me,” he said, stepping back.
“Not on our first full day home. Heck, I’m worried enough that we can stay home from Mori’s going away party if you want to,” I said, pulling out a chair and pointing for him to sit down and eat his food.
He sat down and pushed my chair out from under the table with his foot. I joined him, wishing I could have a second cup of coffee, but I was conscious of caffeine’s effect on the baby and already drank one steaming, hot mug while I cooked. I had orange juice instead.
“We should go to Mori’s party. Say what you want to about him, but as soon as you asked for his help, he was all over it,” Vallis said, picking up a piece of crispy bacon.
“I know. I--- I don’t want you to overdo it.”
“I won’t and if I do, I’ll be surrounded by doctors. Barry’s a doctor and your parents will be there. Well, maybe ---”
“Yes, the baby was born,” I said, guilt kicking me in the tail because I forgot to tell him. “Two days after Dad went home. That’s why he didn’t come back as planned. A little girl. They named her Ursla.”
“A bear cub,” Vallis grinned.
“Yep. They’re soooo original.”
“Ah, leave ‘em alone. Wait until we have to think of baby names.”
“Well, I hope we’re more creative than that. We’re on our first,” I laughed.
“For now,” he said, his scent shifting slightly.
“What? You think you’re going to scare me off with thoughts of a big family? Have you met my family?” I laughed.
“Part of them and they’re mostly doctors.”
“Don’t worry. There’ll be plenty of work for you when you’re up for it. Something’s always needing built or repaired ‘round here.”
“Glad to help out.”
“When you’re better.”
“They let me come home, didn’t they?” Vallis asked.
“Yeah, but Doctor Bee said you still needed to do physical therapy. I’ve seen my grandpa fall over after using too much magic and he wasn’t even attacked. So…. Just be careful, okay? I don’t want to lose you.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Vallis said.
After breakfast, we washed up, got dressed, and I took my mate for a walk around the village.
A few decades ago, there wouldn’t have been much to show, but now there were a few little ‘restaurants’.
Mostly, they were bears who cooked food and let others eat it at little tables in their yards or driveways.
Our movie theater was operated by the group as a whole and shied away from new releases.
Movies were voted upon each month for what to play the next.
The largest buildings were the library and the clinic.
We had a few inpatient rooms and Grandpa Barry could do more than he let on, but had strict ethical things against operating on family unless it was a dire emergency and he was the only one around.
The village square was already dressed up in silver and blue for Mori’s departure.
“He’s sailing across the ocean with an egg?” Vallis asked me.
“And what’s left of a dragon. So Nic will have her scales,” I nodded.
“Morbid.”
“He named his shop Mori’s Mementos after Memento Mori.”
“Remember you too shall die,” Vallis nodded.
“Well, not you. You’re exempt from that,” I laughed.
“It seems so since I already escaped the grave,” he said, pulling me closer as we walked over to a picnic table to sit down.
The guard on duty, Jeth, came over and was about to tell us the party didn’t start until dinner time until he saw me.
“Eh, the party can start whenever for a pregnant bear,” he said instead. “If you eat all the little party favor bags, try to limit it to under two hundred. That’s all the extra they have.”
“Noted,” I laughed, but ravenous hunger hadn’t over come me yet. “Jeth, this is Vallis. He’s my mate.”
Vallis stood up to shake Jeth’s hand, and they did that alpha thing of looking each other up and down.
I was never sure if it was a fighting thing or a checking each other out thing.
Either way, neither of them had much to worry about.
They were both good-looking bears, even if I was biased toward Vallis.
Plus, they couldn’t fight around me. Participating in an unneeded fight within twenty feet of a pregnant person was grounds for reassignment or retraining for Nightshade Guards.
Vallis sat back down and I wrapped an arm around his middle, leaning my chin on his shoulder.
I didn’t hang onto him because I thought Jeth wanted to steal him away, but because not touching him hurt something inside me and I wasn’t in the mood to ache.
We’d spent so many weeks already doing that.
Vallis relaxed against me and Jeth grinned at us in the way shifters often do at recently met true-mates.
“I’m going to London,” Jeth announced, sitting down at the closet picnic table, but facing away from the table itself so that he could see us.
“To find a Moonscale boyfriend?” I teased him, because I was a mated omega now and the tone was all different. I wanted Jeth to find someone he cared about. I wanted all the members of the Nightshade Bear community to have someone like that, if that’s what they wanted.
“No,” he said, his face turning serious as he ran his fingers through his light brown hair.
“Xenos asked me to go as a guard to the egg because I graduated with my nursing degree too. I took a class on the care of dragon and bird eggs for an extracurricular credit too and have that certification. Never thought I’d actually use it, though. ”
“And you became a guard?” Vallis asked.
“We’re encouraged to attend college or trade school even if we plan to live here forever and be a guard,” Jeth explained. “It’s not required, but everyone knows Barry will try to talk you into it if you don’t. Lots of us have met our mates at one of the academies too.”
Vallis’s eyes flickered to Jeth’s shoulder. It was covered by his standard issue Nightshade Bear Guard uniform.
“Not me,” he laughed. “I wouldn’t be asked to sail across the Atlantic if that was the case.”
“Of course not,” Vallis nodded.
For a split second, I wondered if Grandpa had seen him meet his mate.
Maybe Wess had. I clamped my thoughts down as soon as they passed through my head.
I didn’t want them leaking onto the group link and getting Jeth’s hopes up.
He was a decent guard with a nursing degree.
He was a good fit for the trip. Plus, neither Mori or Preston had ever dated him and that counted for a lot.
The conversation turned to how things were in Heartville.
I listened to the alphas chat and marveled at the curve of Vallis’s neck.
He wore a turtleneck because it was still chilly out but underneath that cotton was my claiming bite on his shoulder.
He was mine all mine. I caught myself untying the ribbon from around one of the party favors and Jeth shot me a knowing smile.
What did Grandpa expect when he put so many chocolate-covered nuts and raisins in little to-go bags?
It was pregnant people food. Okay. Everything was pregnant people food.
“Should we go home and eat?” Vallis asked.
“This is good for now,” I said and popped a chocolate-covered raisin into his mouth.
I caught the barest trace of a jealous look in Jeth’s expression and tossed a chocolate almond in his direction.
He caught it in his mouth and both of the guys laughed.
It wasn’t Vallis that Jeth was jealous of.
It was both of us. I remembered that feeling and wondering why fate smiled upon everyone except me.
Eventually we did go home for a nap before Mori’s going away party.
I woke up all wrapped in Vallis’s arms. His muscles had grown since I first saw him in the hospital.
They were almost as big now as his astral muscles were.
His chest hair was growing back in thick patches too.
I ran my fingers through the soft, fur-like hair and kissed him as we lounged half-asleep together after our nap.
He was hard again and the mere feeling of his erection pressing against me was enough to drive me wild and make my body react.
“Want me to get you off?” I whispered.
“I—uh— The answer to that is always going to be yes.”
I grinned because I’d caught him off guard with the question. I wasn’t sure he was up for the full act but a hand job never killed anyone.
“But I want to get you off too,” he said, pulling me closer and stealing a kiss before I could respond. “Also--- It’s been a while.”
“I’m aware of that,” I laughed. “I was the last person you were with.”
“I mean in my body,” he said and I nodded, waiting for him to say more. “You know how when it’s been awhile it can happen quick and you’re so--- You, Lero. You’re so you and I don’t want you to think it’s always fast – if it happens fast at all and…”
“You’re cute when you ramble,” I laughed. “And I know how dicks work. I’ve had one forever.”
“I know that.. I just…”
“Are you nervous?” I asked.
“I guess that’s what you call it,” Vallis nodded, his eyes wide with realization that after everything something could still make him nervous.
“Hey, it’s okay to be nervous. We don’t have to do anything and if we do and I touch you and the fat bear sings, well, grats to me. You must really like me if it happens that quickly.”
“Is that what the other guys told you?” he laughed, some of the tension leaving his shoulders.
“No,” I shook my head. “But it’s how I think about it. I mean, dicks have a mind of their own when it comes to orgasms. Nerve endings need practice to last longer but lucky for you, I love to practice. Hell, I’ll even watch you practice.”
“Uhh… I might need some time before that,” he said.
“We have time. That’s one thing we finally have,” I leaned in and kissed him slowly.