Chapter 7 Reed
SEVEN
REED
I woke to the smell of coffee and bacon, and for a moment, I couldn't remember where I was. Who was cooking and was that for me? But when I sat up, I was in my bedroom alone.
Unless someone had broken into my old house and was cooking up a storm, it had to be Roscoe who just happened to not only have a reindeer inside him, but also he could transform into said reindeer. And his animal was just as magnificent as his human.
We’d kissed and gotten handsy, and that shifter making breakfast should have shared my bed, but he told me we should wait. Wait? I was done waiting. But he repeated we had to go slow, even though his face was scrunched up like he was in pain.
He’d yammered on about me needing to absorb everything I’d learned and I should do it alone without any interference from him.
I’d assumed the word “interference” referred to what was in his pants and I so wanted to be interfered with.
But Roscoe refused. I’d sighed and begged and finally stomped up the stairs with a hard cock and my briefs coated in slick, leaving him to sleep on the sofa.
I didn’t sleep much because he was downstairs and probably had his feet dangling over the edge of the couch. Whenever I closed my eyes, I recalled his lips on mine and how his hunger matched my own, which was why I couldn’t understand why he refused to have sex.
But as I lay in the dark and the storm raged outside, I ran my mind over reindeer shifters existing and living on my land and one in particular who might share my bed. I longed to know more about shifters and their connection to the land, but uppermost in my mind was my relationship with Roscoe.
Was my intense attraction to him just me being lonely and lusting after the handsome man who would soon be making his home over the hill? I could run ideas in my head all day but until I spoke to him, there was no moving forward.
I pattered downstairs and watched as he moved around the kitchen as if he belonged there. He was wearing an old T-shirt of mine and his briefs and he had no right to look so sexy.
“Morning.”
His face lit up which did things to my heart. “Hey. I hope you don't mind that I made breakfast.”
“Let me think. I come downstairs to a ready-made meal that I didn’t have to cook and you’re asking me if I mind?”
“Something like that.” He offered me coffee and the aroma told me it was better than what I made, though with Erik’s tutelage mine had improved from tasting like dishwater to almost drinkable.
His fingers grazed mine as he handed me the mug. I was drinking him in and his body reacted as mine did with a small jolt, his eyes darkening. Did he and his reindeer come with their own electric current?
Roscoe placed a tray of toast, jam, bacon, eggs, and mushrooms on the coffee table and we sat on the couch with our thighs touching.
To avoid blurting out something I shouldn’t, I grabbed a strip of crunchy bacon and bit into it.
Yum. The salty flavor flooded my mouth and for a second it took my mind off Roscoe beside me.
I swallowed and sipped the coffee. So much better than mine.
“About last night.” A flush spread over my cheeks. In the grey morning light, I worried that my memory was faulty and Roscoe hadn’t lusted over me as I remembered. “I don't usually kiss men I barely know and offer them my bed.”
Roscoe pushed hair off my brow and goosebumps gallivanted over my skin. “I’m glad you don’t. I’d be jealous if you did.”
“You would?” That had to be good, though I didn’t usually rate jealousy as a positive trait.
“There are things I need to tell you,” he said. “About what's happening between us.”
“Okay.” Now instead of thinking we’d get naked after breakfast or during, I was wary. The part of my head that absorbed new and exciting information was closed and not accepting any details until further notice.
Roscoe ran his tongue around his lips and I almost jumped on his lap and demanded his dick. “When shifters find their mates—”
“Mates?” Now instead of lust and desire filling my head and turning up the heat, I was confused.
“For a shifter, a mate is the person you’re supposed to spend the rest of your life with.
” He placed a hand over his chest. “They’re your fate or destiny.
Our kind don’t just fall in love, we bond.
Everything inside us, from our heart to our pinky and our little toe, recognizes that person as ours. ”
“Your little toe is telling you I’m your mate?” That was all I had because my mind was fuzzy and full of cotton balls. “You think I’m the one according to your smallest toe?”
He grinned but it became more of a grimace. “I don't think it.”
Well, that was a let down and now I was more confuzzled than seconds ago.
“I know you are.”
Oh. Gulp!
“From the moment we were in your office that first day, your scent told me you were my fated. Since then, my head, heart, and everything in between has told me to claim you.”
Whoa. Back the F up. Claim me? That wasn’t happening. And besides, we just met. Sex? Yes. Anything else? No, we had to slow down. Damn, he’d been telling me that and I wanted the opposite.
“I don’t want to be claimed.”
He placed my hand on his cheek. Despite a voice inside me saying I wasn’t an object to be owned, this felt right. My body responded when he was near and I longed for him when he wasn’t close.
But claimed? No way.
“I shouldn’t have used that word.” He explained that because shifters know instantly when they meet their mate, they mark one another. “It’s based on mutual recognition and trust and not done when one person resists. Sorry.”
I removed my hand from his and put both mine over my face, trying to block out what he’d said. But I couldn’t ignore what was in my heart.
“We can’t do that.” Not that I was certain what that was. “It’s too soon and we know so little about one another.”
“You talk to your trees because they're your family. You’re kind and you signed a lease and saved the pack from homelessness. You are at one with this land.” He paused and I was yelling inside my head for him to continue.
“I recognize your scent and after last night, how you taste. And I never want to go another day without having you with me.”
Gods, when he put it like that, I wanted to throw myself into his arms. Maybe I should.
I grabbed him, greedy for his lips on mine and he met me, his mouth and hands as desperate as my own. When we broke apart, we were both breathing hard.
“I can’t pretend to feel different than I do.” Roscoe peppered kisses along my jaw. “But I will wait for you.”
He nibbled the soft part of my ear and it took all my strength to not rip his clothes off. “But I have to be honest.”
Damn. There was more. What else could there be?
“Before this goes any further, I should explain something.”
He didn’t have a wonky dick ‘cause I’d seen it so it wasn’t that. Perhaps he had a life-altering disease. If so, I’d be there for him.
“When we are with our mates, even if we haven’t marked them, there are consequences.”
Oh shit. That council he talked about. Did I have to appear before them and agree to love him forever? Maybe they didn’t want a human to be with a shifter? They’d have to fight me on that issue because the more Roscoe spoke, the more I fell for him.
“Go on.”
“You could get pregnant the first time we're together. The chances are high.” Roscoe watched me, possibly anticipating I was going to pull away.
“Pregnant,” I repeated. My mind reeled. A minute ago I was saying we were going too fast and now he was talking babies.
“Kiss me,” I said. Did I just say that? I did and right now, I didn’t give a damn about any consequences.
He captured my mouth with his and I responded. The pent up frustration, confusion and… I couldn’t find a word for the emotion taking hold of me. Love? Was that what it was?
“We should think about this,” Roscoe spoke into my mouth as his hands slipped under my PJ top. “The pregnancy risk—”
“I’m tired of thinking. No more.”
“Reed, if we do this—”
“I’m sure about you and whatever happens next.”
He carried me toward the stairs, pausing every few steps to kiss me.
“Now it’s my turn to tell you something.”
He pulled back, his eyes studying mine.
“This mate bond and whatever happens next, I’m choosing this. I'm choosing you. Not because the universe decreed it but because I want to.”
“One more thing.” He kissed the base of my throat. “I’m the pack Alpha and if we mate, you’ll be the Alpha Omega.”