Chapter 12 Guy
Guy
“Where are you taking me?” Fable asked, peering out the window into the snowy night.
“It’s a surprise,” I said coyly, smirking at him across the car’s darkened interior.
He sighed in mock frustration, glaring at me, but I could sense his amusement through the tendrils of a bond forming between us, even without a mating bite. “Cause you know I didn’t mind staying in bed. I feel zero need to sightsee beyond the walls of our little cabin.”
It was true, we’d spent most of the past 24 hours tangled in the sheets, and if we didn’t need to eat, we likely would’ve stayed there.
When our growling stomachs became too much to ignore, we finally put some clothes on and trudged to the main lodge’s dining room to load up on some much-needed calories.
It was hard to ignore the fact that the dining room was much emptier than it had been our first morning here.
And the couples who were there seemed to be in a similar state as Fable and I were—namely carelessly dressed and smelling of sex.
The other shifters in the room didn’t seem to care, though; they only had eyes for their new mates.
I was starting to put together a picture of how we all came to be here.
Fate had clearly been working double-time this holiday season.
“Seriously!” Fable whined, poking me in the thigh as I slowed the car and turned into a narrow track. “Why the secrecy? You’re not taking me out to the middle of nowhere to kill me and dump the body, right? Let the wild animals deal with the carcass?”
I pulled a face, disgusted by the imagery. My beast was more confused about what a wild animal would want with his body. “Mon dieu, you must watch too many true-crime documentaries.”
He pointed a finger at me. “I do, but that’s not what we’re discussing right now. I will not let you distract me from the question.”
Laughing, I pointed out the windshield. “No distraction necessary. We’re here.”
Ahead, there was a break in the trees, and the road emerged into a clearing, barely large enough for the car.
Fable gasped as he took in the scenery, and I parked the car and turned off the engine, listening as the silence closed around us.
Off to the side, the moonlight shimmered off a small mountain lake, bordered by a pebbled shore.
The tall pine trees that grew close and thick kept this place a secret from the world outside.
“Guy, this is beautiful! How did you know this was here?” he asked.
“Would you believe I know a guy?”
He narrowed his eyes on me. “Hmm, do I have a choice?”
“No,” I said, pulling my toque over his head and passing him my gloves. “Bundle up, I don’t want you to get cold yet.”
“Yet? What do you mean yet?” he called after me as I climbed out of the car, not answering his questions.
In truth, I couldn’t entirely explain where we were or how I knew.
This land belonged to a local wolf pack, and I’d overheard a couple of the shifter staff talking about it.
When Fable had gone to the bathroom, I’d requested permission to bring my mate.
I ran around the car and opened Fable’s door, offering him my hand. He took it and let me pull him from his seat. “Come with me,” I told him, leading the way. I’d never been here before, but I could scent our destination without trouble, the minerals tickling the back of my sinuses.
There, steaming in the night, was a hot spring. The surrounding tree boughs were laden with heavy snow, bowing under the weight, but the rocks lining the hot spring were warm and wet. “Care to take a dip with me?” I asked seductively, peeling off my coat and letting it fall to the ground.
“But I didn’t bring a swimsuit,” he said. Oh, my beautiful, innocent mate.
I raised an eyebrow and waited for him to catch on to what I was suggesting. “Oh!” he gasped after a few seconds. “Like, skinny-dipping? Here?” He glanced around as though expecting a crowd of spectators.
“I promise, there’s no one for miles.”
He seemed reluctant, and I wouldn’t push if this wasn’t something he wanted to do, but as I watched, he sucked his lower lip into his mouth as a seductive smirk grew. “You’re sure?” he asked, but he was already unzipping his jacket.
“Positive.” I would hear anyone long before they got close.
I stood, transfixed, as Fable performed a slow strip tease for me.
First, off came the toque and mitts, jacket, then his shirt, his skin pebbling with goosebumps, nipples pinched tight.
He fumbled quickly with his belt, unsnapping the button and jerking down the zipper, but I tsked.
“Slower,” I said, enjoying the show. “There’s no need to rush. ”
“Says you, the guy with the parka!” But he paused for a second, thumbs tucked into the waistband. “Don’t judge me; it’s cold out.” I laughed, but he still turned away to pull everything down. I had no problem with this view either.
As soon as his clothes were off, he slid shivering into the water, then let out the most erotic moan I’d heard outside of the bedroom.
“Ohhh, Guy, this is incredible.” He turned to glance at me, standing here, still fully dressed.
“Are you going to put on a show for me too?” he asked coyly, leaning on the edge of the spring, chin cupped in one hand.
When my mate was naked and waiting for me, he expected me to take my time?
Pas une chance. I was out of my clothes with superhuman speed, with zero tease and even less grace.
Speed was of the essence. I practically cannonballed into the water, earning me an eyeroll from my beaver. He would’ve been more graceful.
Fable ducked from the splash and then scowled playfully at me. “No way! I want my strip tease! Get back out there and do it again,” he griped.
I glided closer, hands finding his waist under the water to pull him close. “You would have me freeze?”
“Mm-hm, if it got me a better look at this…” he drawled, his fingers creeping down my abs to encircle my length, the water adding friction to his strokes.
I groaned, claiming his mouth in a searing kiss that quickly had us both panting.
Pressing Fable into the side of the spring, I tried to shield him from the rock ledge with my arms. Finally, I simply spun us around so he was on top, the rock ledge at my back.
I would heal from any scrapes much more easily than he would.
Besides, I was currently feeling no pain.
No, instead, I was drowning in my mate. Nothing existed but the two of us.
Fable gripped my hair and tugged my head back, immediately going for my neck.
He seemed obsessed with licking and nipping at my shoulder with his teeth, right where a mating mark would go.
It was driving me absolutely wild. Human or not, Fable must’ve felt something of what being mates meant.
He hadn’t broken the skin yet, but if he did, I wasn’t sure I could stop myself from marking him in return.
A half-formed bond was the worst kind of torture.
“Guy, I need…” he moaned, angling my cock so he could sink down on my lap. His thighs clamped down on my hips as his tight heat, warmer even than the hot spring, enveloped my shaft.
I would watch him all day, every day, if I could. The way his eyes drifted closed on a moan, his head tipping back in bliss as I filled him to the brim, the moonlight highlighting his features in silver. He was ethereal, and fate saw fit to make him mine.
Fable whined, wiggling his ass as he adjusted to my girth and making me see stars.
And as much as I loved to watch him, my eyes closed of their own volition.
Feeling him like this, so close and yet somehow nowhere near close enough, it was too much.
I flexed my hips, fucking up into him, using my hands on his hips to press him down against the water’s buoyancy.
“I need you to fuck me,” he panted, clinging to me with desperation. “Hard and fast.”
I tried to give him his wish, but the water was fighting against us, adding friction, reducing the speed and force. Sweat beaded on our foreheads and necks, but Fable’s face scrunched up in frustration. This wasn’t what he wanted.
“Up,” I huffed, patting his hip. “Let me try something else.”
Confused but curious, Fable obliged, and with one swift movement, I hoisted him half out of the water and bent him over the ledge. Then, I entered him from behind, and his cry echoed across the lake. “That’s right, mon chou, be as loud as you want. Nobody will hear you.”
Steam curled off our skin in the freezing air, but with our legs in the spring and my body pressed over his back, we were more than warm enough. In this position, my hands braced against the slushy ground, I could properly fuck my mate the way he wanted.
“Oh gods, alpha,” he groaned, looking for something to grip on to as my pace hit full speed.
Again and again, I slammed into his tight, slick ass, and my eyes remained fixed on that soft freckled shoulder, the perfect place to mark him.
My gums ached as my teeth extended against my will.
It was a good thing Fable was facing away, because it would be hard to explain these incisors.
I clenched my eyes closed and gritted my teeth as my climax bore down on me.
“Yes, yes, yes,” Fable chanted, and I reminded myself that he was not giving permission to claim him forever.
Just for tonight. As soon as I felt the telltale fluttering of his tight ring of muscle around my cock, my orgasm burst forward, emptying my load into his channel.
My knot forced its way inside him, locking us together.
Every instinct I had told me to claim my mate, so I bit down on my lip hard, tasting blood, to keep myself from marking him.
Fable was still shuddering beneath me, keening, so I continued to thrust my hips in sharp punches, fucking him with my knot, until his taut body went limp, his breath shuddering past his lips.
Our bodies locked for now, I was careful as I gathered him against me and slid us back into the water. Fable let his head drop back against my shoulder, letting out a sated sigh. “I hope nobody minds the mess we made of their hot spring.”
I chuckled, running my hands over his stomach to wash him clean. “Oh, I have a feeling we’re not the first to christen the spring.”
His head lolled to the side to make a disgusted face at me. “I did not need to think about that. Thanks a lot,” he said, making me laugh.
Lazing in the pool as we waited for my knot to go down, I took the time to satisfy my beast by rubbing myself all over Fable, covering him in my scent so that, even without my bite, other shifters would be able to tell who he belonged to from a mile away.
It was in the aftershocks, when Fable was still fully relaxed, that he sighed in half-drunk bliss. “How would you feel about meeting my parents?”
I froze mid nuzzle. “Um… good?” Meeting his family sounded serious. Did that mean I was winning him over to the idea of a future together?
His stilted laugh jolted through me. “I know it’s weird to go to dinner and meet your fling’s family, but… you’ve already played my pretend husband once. Maybe you would be willing to play my boyfriend for one more night?”
Fling, he said. Disappointment curdled my insides, and my knot chose that exact moment to slide free.
“Of course,” I said, schooling my features as he turned around to face me.
“Anything you need, it’s yours.” My heart, my soul, the air in my lungs, the blood in my veins.
Whether he chose me or not, everything I was belonged to him.