24. Mated
Mated
Kade
M y mind whirred with all that had happened in the last... day. I think it had been a full day since my dad had found me. Then I’d been taken. The man I thought had abandoned me appeared to save me and had killed Rincoln for Blake. He’d kept my mate safe. Had risked his life to do it.
“Dakota, son. Shift back and carry Roan here to the cars, would you?” Dakota looked at me and Blake before answering his father by shifting into his massive brown bear form. He truly was spectacular as his alter.
I shivered, though I wasn’t truly cold. Shock was setting in. “Anyone that can shift should, just until we get to the cars.” Blake said as he held me tighter.
“As you say, Alpha Blake,” the man I’d seen at the full moon run, Alpha Jason, nodded to his bears.
“Bears, when we return home, I’m making our return to the Sweetwater pack official.
” He walked forward and placed a hand on Blake’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze.
“Son, you’ve shown me you are a new breed of alpha and my bear agrees that the other bears under my protection would thrive and be happy under your care.
” My heart filled with joy at the validation that Blake had never had.
He’d never had an elder come to him and express their feelings at how he ran his pack.
My brief visit with the bears had impressed upon me that Alpha Jason was firm but fair. He loved each of his shifters and each one had a place in the pack. They’d be an asset to Blake’s pack, to my pack. Yes, yours, mate. Blake’s voice was amused over the link.
Dakota was standing over Roan and made a grumbling sound. Blake and Axel carefully lifted Roan over Dakota’s back so the bear could carry him. “I’ll stay in this form, Alpha, and walk back to the cars so Roan doesn’t fall off.” Axel said as he stood by Dakota.
Deke limped to the other side of Dakota. “I’ll get this side.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked both of the enforcers. They both had a myriad of injuries littering their bodies. Each gave me a reassuring smile and spoke words of encouragement to Roan as he lay limp.
Blake gave me a nudge, and I shifted, the change coming over me as easy as breathing and I stretched out in my alter form, loving the feel of the breeze in my fur.
We’d get to the cars, find some clothes and call the council to clean all this up. Too many shifters had died today, but enough had been exiled that would need guidance from the council in their new lives.
I let out a joyous bark when I saw Dakota’s papa, James, waiting by the vehicles for us.
“Oh, my gosh! Kade! Just look at you!” James exclaimed as he saw me.
I ran a giddy circle around him. With a cooing noise, he ran his hand through my fur.
“Your wolf is so pretty!” My wolf preened at the compliment.
It was true, after all, they were. I let myself bask in the praise while the others caught up.
It took a little bit to get everyone shifted back, dressed in the spare clothes most shifters kept in their vehicles, and Roan safely in the bed of Deke’s truck where he could stretch out.
Aldrin looked him over and pronounced he’d be fine, might not even be scarred, as his healing was working well.
My relief had me sagging against a car door until Blake picked me up and set me inside. “Let’s get you home,” he said in a warm rumble.
“No, please.” I shook my head. “I don’t want to go back there.”
“How about...” Blake sounded tentative as he stepped between my legs. “The pack house?”
I rested my head against his chest. “Yes, please. I know we’ve got things to sort, but I want this, Blake. I’m ready to make it official. Permanent.”
He stiffened fractionally, then softened and tightened his hold. “I’m so glad you’re safe, Kade. I was so scared. The thought that you’d be bonded to someone else made me sick. I love you.”
“I love you too, Blake.”
Despite the nap I’d had thanks to the sleep spell, I still zonked out in the truck as Deke drove us back to the pack compound. Adrenaline crash was brutal, and I felt shaky and weak when I woke up to Blake trying to lift me out of the car.
I saw Axel helping Roan from the truck bed. Axel had insisted on staying there with Roan as we made our way home.
“What’s going to happen to Roan?” I asked Blake as Axel helped him shuffle away.
“That’s up to him, but I’d like him to join the pack if you’d be okay with that?”
His words had me pausing. How would I feel if my ex was in the same pack as me?
I’d be higher status than him as the Alpha Mate, but would it be awkward?
I thought back to how it felt to have Roan there in the house.
My wolf had trusted him implicitly. Roan had guarded me and protected my mate for me, even coming to harm himself.
“I think... I think that would be good, actually. Roan was really there for me. He killed my dad so you wouldn’t have to. He got hurt trying to help you. If you’re okay with it, then, yes, please.” It would be the start of a new chapter for us. He’d been my best friend growing up.
“The council had hired him to look after you.” We’d been walking into the pack house, but Blake’s words stopped me.
“What?”
“His sentence for trying to trap you, for looking the other way to the abuse, was to guard you. He literally has a house down the street from you. Been there for the last two years.”
I didn’t know what to make of that. Then I realized it didn’t matter. Roan had been my neighbor and nothing had happened. For the last two years, he had let me live my life as I had wanted and had only gotten involved when Rincoln had made his move. He’d given me years of freedom.
“Alpha,” the red-haired beta female I’d seen before called out to Blake, “there’s a call from the council waiting for you in the office.”
“Thank you, Melody.” Blake replied. Resting a hand on the bottom of my spine, he led me to his office. “Melody is Cadence’s sister. I’m not sure if you met her at the omega houses.”
“I’m not sure. How can that only be yesterday? Seems like years ago. It’s all a blur.”
“I had Melody looking after the omegas. Her father had been one of my father’s enforcers and was a tad more progressive than my dad.
He trained Melody to be a brutal fighter after her older sister started having heats.
Him seeing value in his beta daughter saved his life and protected his daughters from harm when everything went down here.
” He paused and turned back a little. “Melody?”
“Yes, Alpha?”
“I got a report, but how was it at the omega houses?”
“There are still enforcers there, Alpha. I’m only back because I was told you were on your way and we needed some more first aid for our prisoners.
We have it in hand. Thank you for leaving so many enforcers to protect them.
” Melody spoke with genuine pride and affection for her alpha as she got ready to rush out of the door.
“If you need any more help?” Blake offered.
“No need, Alpha. Best not keep the council waiting.”
It felt very different to be led to Blake’s office this time.
I was more aware of my surroundings, taking in details of the mansion and the sheer amount of shifters that occupied it.
I’d made it just inside the room last time, but Blake led me to his seat, encouraging me to sit while he found chairs for himself, his brothers, Deke and Roan.
“Roan insisted on being here for the debrief, Alpha,” explained Deke at Blake’s confusion.
Once seated next to me, Blake called out, “Dalton, could you put the call through, please? And maybe bring some snacks?” There was a beep and Blake answered, putting the call on speaker. “This call is on speaker. My mate, brothers, and enforcers are present.”
“Alpha Sweetwater, this is Councilman Ford. Thank you for rescuing Kade. A team is already dealing with the aftermath of what happened this afternoon. We will take the exiled to other cities once their belongings are packed.”
“Thank you, Councilman Ford. All we ask for is no retribution for the lives that had to be taken. We incapacitated where possible. Shifter lives are too precious.” I stroked a hand along Blake’s thigh. He seemed older than his years like this. Blake’s words had his family drawing in breath.
“Indeed. It’s an unpopular opinion, but your pack has done us a favor by taking out Hayes.
” I couldn’t restrain my flinch, and several sets of sympathetic eyes flashed my way.
“Unfortunately, he had more followers than we had expected. I understand you will have to check through your pack to root out any more sympathizers. This is just the council saying, thank you, officially. There will be no punishment for the Sweetwater pack.” He took an audible breath. “Is Roan there?”
“I am, Sir.” Roan said from his place on a sofa between Blake’s brothers.
“Thank you, as promised, you are to receive your full pardon. You are now a wolf in good standing and are welcome to join a pack or leave Sweetwater, if that’s what you wish. Do you have plans?”
Roan looked at a loss and hung his head, looking at his hands. “We would like him to join the Sweetwater pack if he wants that. He’s more than welcome here.” Blake informed the room.
Roan’s head snapped up, glancing between me and Blake as he seemed to come to a decision. “I think I’d like that.”
I zoned out of the meeting after that, aside from picking at the snacks put in front of me.
They eventually whisked Roan away to a bedroom to finish recovering, and they checked on the omegas.
I just wanted to be next to my mate. To have this all over and done with.
Councilman Ford’s last words echoed in my brain, “Kade? We need to have a conversation in a few days, if you don’t mind.
I’ll let you recover, but it’s important. ”
“What do you think he wants?” I questioned Blake as he led me through the house and up a floor to his sizable suite.
“No idea, but I’d rather focus on you.” That made my heart melt. I always felt so important when I was with Blake.
Inside of his rooms, I didn’t stop to look around. I pulled Blake towards the bathroom, the door open and inviting us to wash off the stress of the last day.
Blake stripped me reverently as the water heated, his silver-blue eyes heated as he took me in. Under the spray, we took turns washing each other, not needing to speak as the importance of this moment hit us.
I thought that I would feel nervous that this was finally happening.
I’d been the one reluctant to bond fully, but I was glad that I’d had this time with Blake without the pressure of a full bond.
This way I had time to feel closer to him, and he’d proven that he was unlike any other alpha that I’d known.
He wrapped me in a fluffy towel before drying himself quickly. I took his hand and drew him over to the bed and pushed him to sit down up against the mound of pillows. His scent rose off the bedding, and I took a second to bask in the chocolate scent of my mate.
His hands landed on my hips. “Are you sure about this?”
“I’ve never been more sure. I want to be fully mated to you, Blake Sweetwater.”
“And I want to be fully mated to you, Kade Turner.”
A smile stretched my face at him, using my chosen name. Ryder Hayes was long dead to me, and I wanted the life that Kade Turner was building.
I leaned forward, nose brushing along the line of Blake’s neck. Grinning against his shoulder at his intake of breath, I kissed the place where my mark would go and, without any more delaying, bit down. His blood flooded my mouth, and I swallowed reflexively before licking the bite to help it heal.
Impressions of Blake’s love for me filled my mind, and I heard an echo of his thoughts. Need more.
“You should bite me again,” I said, and he nodded, wasting no time before finding the spot where he’d placed his mark.
He ran a finger over it. “It’s lighter than it was.”
“Do it.”
Tongue taking the place of his finger, Blake laved the spot and then bit down. A brief flash of pain and then everything was open to me. All of his thoughts that he didn’t filter, no walls to divide me from his family. I heard his brothers exclaim before I erected my own shutters to keep them out.
This moment was just for me and Blake alone. He held me tight and I just let him see everything in my heart.
Our lips met in a gentle kiss as the tingling started. Warmth flared up and over my body. Within moments, it was almost unbearable how empty I was feeling. I wriggled in response to my discomfort, breaking our kiss, and stripped off the towel that was barely hanging on.
Blake’s pupils flared as he caught the scent of my heat beginning, his hands tightening on my hips. I took his mouth again, feeling the arousal grow between us. The scent of our precum and my slick filled the room.
I made a sound of protest as he tried to slow it down. “Need.” I panted against his lips.
“Take what you need.”
Rising, I pulled the towels out of the way, throwing them off the bed, and rose over Blake’s straining cock, the tip pressing at my entrance. There was no time for extended foreplay. It hurt too much to wait. I needed to be filled with my mate now.
I sank down on him, exhaling with pleasure at the feeling of being fully connected to my mate. Still, I needed more and began to move, becoming frustrated quickly that it wasn’t quite enough.
Blake sensed my trouble and flipped us, bringing my feet to his shoulders to press deep inside me.
My heat burned through me as I moaned underneath my mate as he took me harder at my insistence. Harder and deeper, Blake thrust as I sank my fingers into his muscular ass, begging for more.
I felt my orgasm rising slowly, some relief from the intensity of this heat, but not quickly enough. I reached a hand between us and stroked myself quickly, reaching my peak and spilling over my stomach.
Within seconds, Blake came inside me, his knot growing as he pressed deep inside me. His rut demanded that nothing leak out. His eyes were wild as he kissed me. Aftershocks of our orgasms made us gasp and moan.
I lay in the circle of his arms, completely sated for a little while, until Blake’s knot shrank. There was no respite from this heat. My mate groaned in reaction to my scent and thrust inside me again.