Chapter 24
BLUE
I can see that Marcel’s call really shook Gabriel.
That evening, when I come back from the shower, I find him standing by the window in his room, staring out at the darkened city, his thoughts clearly far away from here.
He looks good, wearing only black sweatpants, his bare torso exposed. The defined lines of his muscles shifting beneath his skin draw my gaze.
But his somber mood stops me from acting on it.
"The day after tomorrow I have to fly to Japan for a meeting. I already postponed it once, and I can’t delay it any longer. The contract has to be finalized," I inform him.
"Of course."
We stand there for a moment, now both looking out the window, Gabriel glancing at me briefly, almost out of the corner of his eye, before speaking carefully.
"The holidays are coming to an end. Would it be alright if we visited my parents? It's just that… I always spent the holidays at home, and I don’t feel entirely right not seeing them at all."
I blink; his words slightly surprise me.
"Of course, Gabriel. I was planning to visit my own parents as well. As you know, your ankle monitor is connected to the sensor in my glasses, so you can take them with you and go see them. I have a spare pair."
Gabriel turns to me abruptly. "But why would I go there alone? First of all, I don’t want to leave you without protection, and second, I… I…" He trails off, his cheeks reddening. "I’d like you to come with me."
I fall silent for a moment, an uneasy feeling settling in my chest. Deep inside me, a strange kind of stress begins to build at the thought of being judged by people who are so close to Gabriel.
They don’t know we’re True Mates yet. They may see me as a man who keeps their son in servitude, or worse, as someone carrying out a punishment that will last an entire decade.
This subtle unease is quite unfamiliar. Me, caring what others think? But for some reason, the idea that the parents of my fated mate might hate me bothers me. Still, once they learn we’re fated, all of that should disappear… Though it may not work quite that magically.
"You want to introduce me to your parents as your mate?" I ask tentatively.
Gabriel immediately looks flustered, biting his lip.
"I mean, I’d like to. But I remember our agreement about discretion, so I can leave it for later if you’d prefer."
He must notice how long I remained silent, because it seems to make him even more nervous, and he quickly adds,
"Maybe it really would be better if, for now, you showed up there just as… my boss, who’s doing me a favor and visiting my family during the holidays so I don’t have trouble with the ankle monitor."
I could object now and say we could handle it differently, but something in me decides to accept that version, for peace of mind.
"Alright. Maybe it will be better if they get to know me first without the weight of the TM situation."
Gabriel nods slowly, and I immediately know this isn’t what he actually wants. But for now, the decision is made.
We stand there for a while, both of us looking out over the city.
Every now and then, I steal almost furtive glances at Gabriel.
His perfect abs and those beautifully defined muscles persistently catch my attention.
I already want to move on to the next part of the evening, but Gabriel’s expression remains thoughtful and slightly distant.
I can’t help wondering what’s on his mind.
The visit with his parents, or… maybe still Marcel?
For some reason, on the display hidden inside my glasses, I pull up his photo available online in front of my eyes.
I study his delicate face. He has dark, slightly wavy hair, light blue eyes, and facial features that in some unclear way resemble my own.
Do I really feel jealous that this man occupied Gabriel’s thoughts for a year and a half? Maybe. I reluctantly admit it to myself.
Before Gabriel, I’ve never really experienced jealousy like this, certainly not over a man. I’ve envied other people’s lives and success, but being jealous of some guy I’ve never even seen in person?
And this isn’t even the first time. It happened before, during the whole situation with Benny. It’s absurd. Why am I this insecure? I know perfectly well that now that we’re True Mates, he can’t truly come between us, and yet the emotions are still there, stubbornly alive despite all logic.
I slowly move even closer to Gabriel and stand beside him. I see his hand resting on the windowsill, but I hesitate, unsure whether I should touch it.
I can see a vertical crease forming on his forehead.
For a moment I consider bringing up Marcel’s call one more time, but I decide against it. There’s no point in ruining the mood.
Instead I make a small move with my hand, sliding it over his forearm, and higher to his firm biceps. Gabriel lets out a quiet sigh, and I know my touch means a lot to him.
His skin is perfectly warm. No omega or beta has that kind of heat, it’s reserved for alphas. And it draws me in. So I slowly lean toward him and press a wet kiss near his elbow.
Gabriel turns his head in my direction and his pupils dilate. I lift my other hand and slowly run it along the ridged, washboard-like texture of his abdomen, tracing the raised lines and shallow grooves beneath my fingertips.
Gabriel’s breathing deepens. I press my nose firmer to his shoulder and inhale his scent.
I find myself wondering when my sense of smell will sharpen enough to recognize all the undertones of his Allure.
Right now, what I catch is faint, something lightly apple-like, maybe close to the blossoms of young apple trees.
It’s pleasant in a way that makes me want to follow it, sink into it, but it also keeps slipping away from me.
I can’t hold the full spectrum of it yet.
Still, what reaches me is already intoxicating, so I close my eyes and let it saturate me.
And… my body reacts to that fragrance with a surprising intensity, something that until recently was completely foreign to me.
Me, burning with desire? It’s a new development. A pleasant wave of contractions rolls down toward my passage which clenches hard and pulses at the thought of him filling me, pressing me into the sheets, making me moan and beg for more.
My pulse spikes. My fingers hook on his waistband in an indecently obvious gesture.
Only then do I open my eyes again and meet his gaze. His pupils are already dilated, eclipsing the green and gold irises.
There’s a kind of pleasure in this moment, right on the edge of what comes next, that suspended second before bodies finally merge in a sensual primal dance. That pause before you bite into a dessert that’s right in front of you, the scent sweetly playing at your sense of smell.
Touching him feels like mapping the road to pleasure. My lips drift closer to his skin, and I taste it with just the tip of my tongue. Clean, fresh, a young, healthy alpha’s body, my… alpha’s body. Tuned to mine, meant for me by the will of Fate, destined to melt together with me.
Gabriel lifts his hand, unhurried, as if he’s also savoring and enjoying every second of this.
His fingertips dive under my shirt, travel along my side, over my ribs, under my arm, sliding toward my stiff nipples. He lightly pinches one, and sparks shoot through me, spreading across my body and gathering between my thighs, inside my passage.
Small shivers, one after another, like beads rolling over silk, collect there. With them comes moisture, and I feel my petals blooming, preparing for Gabriel.
His hands leave my nipples and move to my waist, gripping it lightly before, with a slow but firm motion, he turns me around so my back faces him. I lower onto my elbows and push my ass back.
A moment later he drops to his knees and hooks his fingers into my boxers. One second and they’re at my ankles, another and his tongue finds its way onto my skin, tracing paths over my ass cheeks, teasing, soft, deliberately provocative. Fuck, so good.
Who would’ve thought touch could feel so perfect.
My petals swell even more, a sensation I rarely knew before and now have become very familiar with. Overwhelming, yet tantalizing. It makes me want to moan loud, and it takes effort to hold myself back, to keep some shred of composure.
Then his tongue intensifies its swirls, circling, flicking, teasing between my petals, and I let out pleading sounds. My elbows shift against the windowsill.
Gabriel’s movements are increasingly skilled, he obviously already knows what I like, the Bond must help with that. He slides his tongue in slow circles around my entrance, constantly brushing my petals, driving me nearly insane. Electric shivers race up my spine.
In a need of more intimate contact, I reach back, brushing his head. Gabriel catches my palm, lacing his fingers with mine. His other hand moves to my nipples, pressed against the cold surface of the marble.
It feels like I’m about to lose control completely. Too many sensations, too many waves of pleasure moving through me like tributaries feeding a vast river, each one adding its drop, lifting me higher.
I’m shaking. My heart is pounding. I’m getting hotter.
Close. So close.
With my hand still reaching back, Gabriel suddenly pulls it toward his face, pressing my wrist against his mouth, then sliding it slightly toward his glands.
I stay in this strange position, arched back on one elbow, the other arm extended behind me. I feel exposed. Handed over to him, so intimately presented with my ass cheeks spread wide.
And the fact that everything now depends on him, how close I am to orgasm, it’s…
thrilling. The approach toward loss of control, toward surrender, falling into abandon; it’s carving new pathways in my brain, rewriting something inside me.
This lack of control I used to hate turns into this dive into pleasure, and I’m experiencing it fully, fascinated, amazed.
Yes, I’m getting closer. Right at the edge. Teetering, wanting to tumble down.
Suddenly a sound tears out of Gabriel’s throat, the AO call I’ve never heard before. My omega mind, not fully wired, struggles to interpret it, but some part of me tries to mimic it. I answer with something similar, softer, thinner, but fairly close.
Then Gabriel presses his mouth firmly to my ring of petals, sealing around it and sucking hard.
The force of it breaks something loose inside me. I moan, and my cock jerks, ejecting long streaks of white semen.
Right as the amazing orgasm hits me, Gabriel pulls away from my entrance and… bites into my wrist.
Sharp pressure, then sweet pain, mixed with another wave of pleasure that makes me cry out.
Wow! Gabriel has marked me on my small wrist gland!
I come down from it in a state close to euphoria, stunned, as if an immense surge of energy has expanded through my entire body.
A rush of joy that he has claimed the only remaining piece of me, the old Blue, the one who existed before the accident.
That small remnant of the past, and now he has marked it as his.
At the same time, I finally understand what his sound meant. A request, a permission to mark. And I had given it without realizing it, but… I don’t regret it. On the contrary, I feel almost ecstatic.
I turn and look at him.
"That was perfect!" I groan out, still catching my breath.
He lifts his face from my wrist. I see a faint trace of blood on his lip, and two thin white fangs protruding between them.
That primal look, that wild alpha expression, makes me grin widely.
This whole thing is insane.
The first part of the experiment that was about sex has completely taken hold of me. I’m no longer just observing it. I’m a participant in it, both subject and object.
Gabriel smiles back.
A wide, happy grin. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone smile with mating fangs out before, but I know I’ll remember this picture for the rest of my life.