Chapter 18 Killian
Killian
Killian came back to his senses wrapped around Chase so tightly it was a surprise the beta was able to breathe comfortably in his arms.
Chase was sleeping on his stomach in the nest with his head turned to the side. Killian was on top of him, his half-hard cock nestled in the cleft of Chase’s ass.
Killian shifted up onto one arm and took stock.
There were dark circles under Chase’s eyes, and bite marks littered his neck and shoulders, though Killian had managed to avoid any placement that would have made things more … permanent. Chase smelled so strongly of Killian’s pheromones that they were no doubt embedded under his skin.
Killian tried not to take too much pleasure in that—he’d been a brute, hadn’t he?
—but it was hard to keep his inner alpha from gloating.
It was incredibly satisfying having Chase looking and smelling like his in the nest Killian had built for him.
He looked like a proper alpha’s mate, and it was doing something to Killian.
Killian reluctantly withdrew his cock from its warm den and parted Chase’s cheeks with a gentle touch.
Chase’s hole was reddened and puffy—definitely well used—but with no obvious signs of tearing.
His inner thighs were also pink and chafed, and there was dried cum streaking them.
Killian supposed that part wasn’t surprising.
They hadn’t bathed at all during his rut—Killian’s instincts hadn’t liked it, the few times Chase had suggested it.
Although, Killian did remember Chase wiping them down in between bouts as best he could.
Chase shifted and half turned, blinking bleary eyes up at Killian. “What— Is it—” He blinked some more, his shoulders sagging with relief. “I can see the blue in your eyes again.”
“Rut’s over,” Killian told him. He cleared his throat. His voice was hoarse, no doubt from all the incessant growling he’d been doing. “Are you— You’re all right?” he asked.
Killian remembered it all, though some parts were a little foggier than others.
(The feel of Chase’s channel squeezing his knot definitely wasn’t something Killian was going to forget anytime soon.) Killian knew he hadn’t taken it easy on him, that even his attempts to give Chase a break from his knot—fucking his face, fucking his thighs, sucking his cock like a devil—had been rough and possessive, despite Killian’s constant inner mantra to be gentle with his beta.
Chase rolled over onto his back, still halfway beneath Killian. “I’m fine,” he said softly. Whatever he saw in Killian’s face had him cupping Killian’s cheeks. “I’m fine, I swear. Really. I came so hard and so often I think there’s nothing but dust left in there.”
But he was trembling as he dropped his hands, and his eyes had gone glassy. Killian had seen him like this before. Many times before.
It was a drop from whatever headspace Chase had gone into during Killian’s rut. He was crashing now that it was done.
Lucky for them both, Killian knew about aftercare, especially when it came to his sweet, self-possessed beta.
Killian stroked Chase’s dark-blond strands back from his face.
For once they weren’t baby-soft, too coated in dried sweat and who knew what else.
“You did so well for me, Chase Adler,” Killian murmured, and he knew he’d hit the mark when Chase took a deep breath, almost a gasp, his pretty green eyes softening.
“You were a perfect fucking beta for me, weren’t you?
You took my knot over and over. I’ve never been so satisfied during a rut. Not once in my life.”
Chase caught his bottom lip between his teeth, gazing up at Killian through his lashes in a way that might have been coy if he hadn’t looked so exhausted and raw. “Really?”
“Mm.” Killian lowered until he was lying between Chase’s parted thighs.
He scratched lightly at the beta’s scalp, pleased when it made Chase’s lids lower in pleasure.
“I remember it all. The way you squeezed around me. The way you opened your legs and your mouth to me whenever I wanted. The whimpers and whines you made while I fucked you.”
Fuck. Killian was making himself hard, his cock filling more and more with every deliciously filthy memory that came up. He’d really used this boy, every bit of his beautiful body.
And he wanted to do it again.
Chase felt it too. He tucked his chin down and eyed the space between their bodies warily. “Fuck no. I can’t.”
Succinct. To the point.
Killian sighed, rising onto one arm again as he grasped his hard cock with his free hand.
“I don’t need you to,” he assured, stroking himself with a fast, rough touch.
“You’ve already been such a good boy, taking me as often as you did.
I’m going to coat you in my cum one last time, and then we’re going to shower and nap and eat everything in this house. ”
Killian should let Chase shower already, but he needed to finish this first. His rut hormones were still settling, and while Killian wasn’t going to fuck Chase—they’d need to take a break from penetration for a while as Chase’s body recovered—he liked the idea of marking him one last time, saturating him before Killian was forced to wash those rut pheromones off his skin.
Chase went lax underneath him. “Oh. Okay.”
He watched Killian touch himself with a keen interest that bordered on hunger. As if maybe he wasn’t sick of Killian’s cock or his touch, despite having had both of them on him constantly for the last three days.
It was a quick, efficient jerk-off session before Killian was spurting all over Chase’s belly, rubbing the cum into his skin before he could stop himself.
God, the beta really did look wrecked. Taken apart by alpha cock and somehow still smiling at Killian so sweetly as Killian led him to the shower.
Killian took great pleasure in not allowing Chase to lift a finger, washing Chase’s hair and body for him, keeping his touch as gentle as he could.
He took even greater pleasure in finally articulating all his many thoughts about how good Chase was, how perfectly responsive his body had been, how he took a knot like he’d been born for it.
Chase squirmed under the attention and praise at first, but he relaxed into it quickly enough, like he always did, letting the water and words wash over him like the good boy he was.
By the time they sat down in Killian’s kitchen to eat something more substantial than hand-fed fruit, Chase was looking flushed and happy, no longer trembling, his eyes bright if a bit tired.
They’d need to nap after eating. Chase hadn’t had nearly enough rest in the last few days; Killian knew that much.
Maybe Killian could talk him into staying a few more days for sleep and care.
Or just never let him leave.
Fuck.
Killian had really thought that maybe after his rut, some of the possessiveness that had been building inside him would wane, but if anything, it was the opposite. Killian couldn’t crush this feeling that they’d crossed some line that made Chase his. Permanently. Irrevocably.
Killian wanted to keep this man. Needed to keep him.
“If he needs you to go slow, go slow.”
Killian sighed, shifting Chase on his lap and giving him another bite of omelet, one Killian had packed with veggies and cheese and smothered with avocado, hoping to get as many calories and nutrients into his beta as he could.
It was going to be a battle, wasn’t it? Keeping his cool and not fucking everything up by railroading Chase. But Killian could do it. Small steps forward, no steps back—that would be his new mantra when it came to his beta.
And Killian had already decided the first step would be convincing Chase to let Killian take him out to dinner. In public.
That was what people did when they were dating, right?
What Killian had done once upon a time. They went on dates.
And so far Killian and Chase had been confined to Killian’s house for the duration of their relationship.
And while Killian liked having Chase in his house very much—on his couch, at his table, in his bed—he needed things to shift.
He didn’t want Chase convincing himself this was only a matter of sex.
Maybe it had started that way, but it sure as fuck wasn’t ending that way.
It was ending with a ring on Chase’s finger, if Killian had anything to say about it.
But that was getting ahead of himself. For now, the important thing was that they were fucking boyfriends, goddamn it, and Killian had to make sure Chase was on board with that or he was going to lose his goddamn mind.
Killian’s gaze caught on the bite marks and hickeys that were scattered over Chase’s skin.
Well. Lose his mind more than he already had.
It turned out it wasn’t difficult at all to convince Chase to go out to dinner.
That was possibly because Killian had suggested a restaurant far from campus—and far from the one he’d picked Chase up at the night he’d had been so upset—or it was possibly because Chase had seemed to be in a bit of a daze all day long.
The rut had clearly taken it out of him, and Killian had been doing his best to mitigate the effects.
There had been quite a lot of scent marking and petting and foisting as much hydration on Chase as he would allow (he’d accused Killian at one point of trying to drown him from the inside out, and Killian had eased up a tad).
But maybe getting out of the house would be the answer. They’d been cooped up for days, and as much as Killian had been doing his best to air out his home, the rut pheromones were still thick as hell in certain areas.
They parked in the restaurant’s tiny parking lot, and Killian led Chase inside. He’d been deliberate in his choice: a casual spot with the best pho Killian had found so far in Phoenix. He thought something hot and filling and not too heavy would be good for someone still feeling a bit … fragile.