Chapter 6
6
CONNOR
"Oh, no, no, no." My mate's nostrils flared when he was angry. It was cute. "You haven't heard a word I've said. I'm not mate material."
"But you are. You're my fated mate."
He looked even cuter when his face scrunched around his nose in a frown. "I don't believe in fate, or people who can turn into wolves, or any of this."
"Well, my pants didn't rip themselves," I said.
"Your suit wasn't exactly high quality." He crossed his arms, elbowing me in the ribs.
"Thanks for noticing." I'd been setting aside most of my paychecks for a down payment on a house. Hank kept me on the road so often, I lived in hotels or crashed on friends' couches. Now that I didn't have a job, I had nothing to offer Ben.
That didn't change the fact that I wanted him by my side forever. He was my fated mate. If only I could convince him of that fact, too.
Ben yawned.
"You should get some more sleep," I said. "I'll keep you safe." I tucked him against my chest and held him loosely in my arms.
He sniffed along my neck again, the way he had when he'd first woken up. "You smell so good," he mumbled.
"That's a fated mates thing," I whispered in his ear.
"Too bad I don't believe in fated mates." He snuggled closer against me, and I was in heaven.
I did my best to ignore the bangs and clangs coming from the rear of the plane. Lack of sleep only made me more jumpy, not less. Each loud noise alerted my wolf to protect Ben at all costs.
Ben didn't seem bothered. He probably couldn't hear the commotion with his human hearing.
Finally, Shen climbed into the cockpit and slammed the door. Ben only curled more tightly against me, pulling his knees up to his chest and resting his feet on the side of the plane beside my seat. The cockpit had only one door, thankfully, though Shen glared at him. For a moment, I thought he would scold me about letting Ben put his feet up on his shitty ancient plane interior.
"What are you doing with him, again?" he asked instead.
"He's my mate."
Shen shrugged. "If you say so. Seems a little too fragile for you."
"He's human, but he isn't fragile." I'd already seen him confront a thief, airport security, and me when we got booted back to coach. I hoped our flight to Orange County would go smoothly for my next plan to work. I would get on my knees in the airport and beg him to let me crash on his couch for one night. And then I would find a way to show him we were fated mates before he made me leave.
I hated takeoffs and landings. They always made me tense. Takeoffs in Shen's plane were the worst because we never knew if the plane would clear the mountains. In the dark, it was even more terrifying. He jerked back the plane controls, and we rose too slowly. The wall of rock got closer. I thought we were going to hit the wall and die, but then we flew through a slightly lighter wall of clouds and continued to climb.
"Woo-hoo!" Shen shouted, easing off his death grip on the controls. "California, here we come!"
We continued to climb, but it wasn't as steep as our departure angle. Confident Shen would take us in the right direction, I nestled my nose behind Ben's ear and tugged him closer, reveling in his sweet scent and the way he clung to me in his sleep.
"Shit, shit."
Shen's grumbling woke me.
"Shit-fuck-shit."
He tapped at a dial on the plane's main console. "Fuck!"
"What's happening?" I whisper-shouted. Ben had just fallen asleep, and I didn't want to wake him.
"We're losing her. I think …" he trailed off, staring out the window at the quickly approaching mountain.
"You think?"
"… I forgot to refuel." He shifted the wheel, and we narrowly avoided the mountain peak. With my wolf eyes, I could see four more dark peaks closing in fast.
"Harness time?" I asked.
"It's only made for one. You know that."
"I'm not leaving him." I bared my teeth in a snarl.
Shen raised both his hands to soothe me, and the plane took a steep dive, alarming me even more.
"I'm just saying," he said as he leveled us out again, "it might fail, and you both could die."
"But if we stay in this plane …"
"Yeah, you'll probably die. Harness it is." He gestured for me to hold the controls in place while he got up and rummaged around in the back. He tossed me a tangled mess of leather. "Strap him to you and leave the big strap free."
It took precious seconds for me to stare at the ball of leather in the dark. Finally, I figured out which big strap he meant. There were larger holes for our legs and smaller ones for our arms, with a cross strap to go around our waists. I secured the arm straps and waist strap around both of us but left my legs free in case I needed to shift again.
Fuck. I would probably need to shift again. I hastily removed the straps and peeled off my new pants. I tucked them into Ben's carry-on, where he'd already stowed the rest of my things. I unbuckled my fanny pack and added it to the mix. Dragon landings could be rough, and I didn't want it to tear on the way down.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Shen asked.
"I don't want to ruin them when I shift."
"You'd better not shift in midair. I can't carry a fucking wolf."
I didn't know what he was bitching about. He was a fucking dragon, the biggest shifters of all. In my shifted form, I could carry Ben on my back, no problem.
I couldn't fly in either of my forms, though, which was apparent when Shen told me to grab the control yoke again. The plane hit something hard, bouncing us into the air, and then the nose of the plane dipped too far forward.
"Lost the controls. It's now or never." Shen stomped to the back of the plane and threw open the cargo bay door. He motioned for me to join him.
I secured the waist belt through the handle of Ben's suitcase and nestled it between our legs. It would feel weird as fuck, but Shen's back was too big for us to straddle, anyway. I hoped it would keep us from hurting ourselves.
I hated heights on a good day, but this was another level. We'd even practiced this jump once with Hank manning the plane. I could do this. All I had to do was take about ten steps to the gaping exit.
I felt Ben's body tense against me. "What's happening?"
"We're going skydiving." Shen's smile looked about as friendly as my earlier snarl.
But I can't—what is this?" He asked. "Where are the parachutes?"
"We don't have parachutes," I whispered.
"Big mountain!" Shen pointed. Then, as from a scene of one of my worst nightmares, he turned and jumped out of the plane.
"He's not wearing a parachute! Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod, we're going to die, aren't we?"
I ran the remaining steps, Ben's suitcase banging between my legs, and launched myself off the ramp into the open air.
"You're fucking crazy!" Ben shouted, the long "E" continuing until something roared beneath us.
"What was that?" he whispered.
"Our parachute."
A moment later, I felt Shen take up the slack in the large strap and work it over his head as he flew. I landed hard on my back, on Shen's back.
Ben landed on me, knocking the breath from both of us. He coughed a few times and choked out, "What the fuck is going on?"
"Slight miscalculation in the straps," I said. "I think I put the harness on backward."
Ben raised the back of his head from my chest to look at the dark scales flaring out behind us, ending in Shen's spiked tail.
"Did this thing eat Shen?" he asked.
"This thing is Shen," the creature below us rumbled. "Will you two stop moving back there? I need to concentrate."
Ben started to chant "Ohmigod" again. I did my best to comfort him, but I had a bad feeling this landing would hurt, since my spine was resting on Shen's protective plates.
"Be gentle, big guy," I said.
Shen roared. In agreement, I hoped.
I wrapped my arms around Ben to provide as much comfort as I could while the cold wind rushed past us. It burned my ears. I pulled Ben's hood up the best I could with my teeth, since the harness straps held our arms together. I wished I could better protect him from the icy air. I should have strapped us front to front. I had not been thinking clearly, and besides, it had been easier to adjust the straps with him sitting on my lap.
Even with the frigid air chilling every part of me that wasn't covered by Ben, I was only aware of his body vibrating against mine. I coaxed his arms to move with mine so I could hold him to me with one arm and cling to his suitcase handle with the other.
"Going down," Shen said. We banked steeply to the left, and all the blood rushed to my head as we dove. Then, we landed with a sickening thud. I bounced along Shen's scales and landed again with a crack.
At least one something in my back was broken, and possibly some ribs, too. I whimpered as I patted Ben down. "Are you all right?" I asked.
"I'm fine," he said. "Are you?"
"Need to shift."
I clawed at the buckles holding our arms together, and Ben helped me take them off. Then, he sat up on top of me, crushing my balls into my thigh. I stifled a groan.
We fell to the hard-packed snow a moment later, and my back flared with new pain. It was now or never. I carefully lifted Ben off me, rolled onto my side, and shifted into my white wolf.
I healed faster in this form. After a few seconds, I backed my way out of my shirt and large winter coat. Then, I pulled at the stretchy shorts cramping my tail with my teeth until I was naked.
Free, I rolled onto my back and shimmied from my shoulders to my tail on the snow-packed concrete. Once I was certain I had healed all the broken bones, I flipped to my feet.
Mate. Must play. Must claim.
I stretched my forepaws out before me and lowered my head to Ben, staring into his gorgeous brown eyes. He was so pretty, even with windburned cheeks and snow stuck in his eyebrows. I wagged my tail at him and hopped closer, begging him to play.
"Connor?" He asked. "Is that you?"
I nodded and gave him my best wolfy smile with my tongue lolling out of my mouth. "Woof."
"Car," Shen said.
Ben waved his arms. I thought he was motioning for me to jump into them, so I did, knocking him off his feet, into a pile of unstable snow chunks. I stumbled on the ice and jumped, landing a few feet from where Ben slid to a stop at the bottom of an embankment.
Shen followed us, shaking his head. "That's one way to get off the road."
"Why did you land on the road?" Ben asked.
"It was the only place clear enough for a dragon my size," he said. "Did you want to bump through the trees on the way down?"
"No." He looked so sad. I hopped back over to him and rubbed my flank along his front, trying to cover him with my scent. I placed my paws on his shoulders and licked from his neck to his forehead.
"You're lucky you smell nice," Ben whispered. He buried his hands in my fur and ran them along my flanks, teasing all my ticklish spots. I wriggled until I had him where I wanted him, with one hand between my shoulder blades where I couldn't scratch, even when rolling on the pavement. His other hand rested on my flank, dangerously close to slipping under and grazing my cock.
"Car's gone," Shen chided. "We need to walk to the nearest town before your boyfriend freezes to death out here."
Ben stood up. Before he could take a step up the embankment, I bounded between his legs, bouncing my hindquarters up so he was fully seated on my back. My ribs still ached a little, but I didn't care. I had my mate where I wanted him. I grabbed his suitcase by the handle and dragged it up the embankment, too.
Ben hopped off my back onto the roadway, almost tripping over one of my shoes. Shen held out my shirt and coat, and I gave him a nod of wolfy thanks before I shifted back into my skin. Once I had hands, I took the clothing from him, finding my boxers shoved in a coat pocket. I'd lost my socks somewhere, but I couldn't worry about them now. It was time to get my mate to safety for the night. We could regroup in the morning.