8. Silas
8
SILAS
F inally, I was done.
Tonight had been busy with a large convention downtown, so I’d completed plenty of rides and made a decent amount in tips.
Still, it was getting close to one a.
m.
, and I wanted to be home.
Audie and Rowan were waiting for me, and I couldn’t get there quick enough.
After finding a parking spot on the street, I let myself into the house.
Usually, when I got home this late, I returned to a silent house.
But tonight, the lights were still blazing, and the baby was wailing.
Above that, I heard what sounded like an adult crying too.
“Please, Audie, what’s wrong? I need you to quit crying. I don’t know what you want. Please stop crying,” Rowan begged while Audie screamed.
I tossed my jacket and dinner bag onto the couch and hurried over.
“Hey, what’s going on?” I asked, laying my hands on his shoulders.
Rowan turned to look at me with red-rimmed eyes and tear-streaked cheeks.
Audie’s eyes looked equally upset as he squirmed in Rowan’s arms.
“Audie has been screaming for hours, and I don’t know what’s wrong. He doesn’t want a bottle. He screams if I lay him down. He screams louder if I pick him. What kind of parent doesn’t know what their kid wants? Oh my gods, you should be worried about leaving him with me. You always know what he wants.” Rowan began crying again as he vented.
“Oh, babe, shush. No, don’t cry. Babies are hard, and screaming ones are the worst.” I took Audie from Rowan and cuddled him against my chest.
With my other arm, I gathered Rowan close, tucked him into my side, and kissed his head.
“You’re a fantastic parent, and Audie is lucky to have you. Does he have a fever?” Rowan shook his head.
“Has he peed?” He nodded.
“Maybe he’s just mad. People get mad, sweetheart, and babies are people.”
“He hates me.”
“Audie doesn’t hate you. He loves you, but he’s just not feeling very lovable right now.” I stepped away to lay the baby in the living room cradle.
“You’re just going to leave him there?” Rowan sounded outraged at the very idea of it.
Audie was pissed and his cries intensified.
“No, I’m going to lay him down temporarily and return in a few minutes. He’ll be fine for a few minutes until I come back.”
“Where are you going? Where am I going?”
“You’re going upstairs to take a break, and then I’m coming back down to try and figure him out.” I took Rowan’s hand and led him up the stairs before he could argue with me.
Audie’s cries followed us, and I knew Rowan was actively fighting the urge to go back downstairs.
Proof positive he was a good dad, even if he didn’t feel like it tonight.
We went straight to the bathroom attached to his bedroom.
“C’mon, you need to relax.” Once in the bathroom, I started the hot water in the tub, then rummaged under the sink until I found the bubble bath I’d discovered when I was looking for cleaning supplies.
“You stay in the tub until you’re melty. Did you eat anything tonight?”
“Ugh, no. I didn’t get around to it.”
“Babe, you gotta eat.” I pulled Rowan close again and kissed his forehead.
“Take your bath. I’ll handle Audie and bring you some food. You don’t leave this room. All relaxation, no chaser.”
“You’re being bossy.”
“Glad you see me as the boss.”
“Is this when you say, ‘Me alpha, you omega?’”
“Ha! You’d never let me get away with that shit.”
“Hey, you decent in there?” I asked before I opened Rowan’s bedroom door a crack.
“I’ve got some food.”
“Yeah, come on in.” Rowan was under the covers of his bed with the duvet up to his chin.
He was watching something on his phone, which I suspected was the camera in the baby’s room.
He usually slept in Rowan’s room, but tonight, I’d decided his daddy needed a break.
“How’d you get him to sleep?”
“Well, I don’t want to talk too much about it right before you eat, but let’s just, um, say he’d been holding a lot of things in. Like a lot a lot.
“Oh yeah, that’s all I need to know.
How’d you figure it out?
”
“I did what every grown-ass adult does when they can’t figure something out. I called my mom.”
“Silas! It’s past one in the morning!”
“She doesn’t mind being woken up when it involves her grandbaby. Trust.” I set the tray in my hands across his lap.
Since it was so late, I’d gone with a simple charcuterie board of cheese, meats, fruit slices, and some crackers.
“Silas, I wasn’t expecting this.”
“What were you expecting?”
“Maybe a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”
“I would never.” Rowan had straightened up when I came in, and I struggled to keep my eyes where they belonged when the duvet slipped and his bare chest was on display.
His smooth skin was unblemished, with only a small tuft of hair in the very center between his pecs.
“I’m going to head downstairs.”
“You made enough for two. You should stay.”
“Happily.”
“Do you think the guy knew she was fooling around with the other one too?”
“Surely yes, right? He was passed out, but they were making out right next to him.”
The shadows in Rowan’s eyes had been replaced by laughter.
His smile was wide, toothy, and with a dimple on one side.
I loved it.
“Sounds like an eventful night, and then you hand to come and clean up my mess.”
Finished, I got up with the tray in hand and prepared to take it back downstairs.
At Rowan’s words, I turned to look directly at him before I answered.
“Coming home to you in the best part of my day.”
“I feel like I’m saying this a lot tonight.” Dark pink stained Rowan’s cheeks.
Gods, I loved it when he blushed.
“What’s that?”
“Please stay.”
I dropped the tray next to the door and rushed back to the bed.
My pulse quickened in anticipation.
When I searched Rowan’s face, I found want and need and something that I was too afraid to delve into on the off chance it wasn’t what I wanted it to be.
With measured movements, I stroked Rowan’s cheek, and his soft moan filled the room, stirring my cock.
My thumb brushed against his full lower lip.
His tongue darted for a quick taste before retreating and then returning once more.
The tiny movement hardened me even more.
Rowan’s eyes darted to my bulge, and his lips turned up in a seductive grin.
“I can help with that.”
“There’s no way the doctor released you for sex.”
“Sex is more than penetration, Silas,” he retorted dryly.
Before I answered, I shoved the blankets off Rowan and crawled into bed with him.
He scooted down from his seated position so I could stretch out over him, my weight supported on my elbows.
“Is that so…”
“Yeah, it’s?—”
Rowan never had a chance to finish his sentence because my mouth swallowed his words.
His lips allowed me immediate entry.
Our tongues tasted each other for the first time in months.
The flavor of sea salt and honey was still strong.
As much as I wanted him, I wanted to savor this moment too.
The last time, our only time, had been a fevered rush.
Now, we sipped and savored until our lungs forced us to pull back for air.
I wasn’t ready to let him go.
My mouth dropped to explore the column of his neck and the dewy skin laid bare.
“Silas, gods, I’ve wanted you for too long.” I moved down his throat to explore the tight buds on his chest, first one, then the other.
“When I was pregnant, I had these dreams about you.” I took a nipple into my mouth and a moan followed his sharp gasp.
“I imagined your hands jacking us both until we came.” The other nipple needed equal amounts of attention.
“When you came, I imagined you marking me so all other alphas knew who had claimed me.”
“You want me to scent-mark you?” I drew my head back to make sure I heard him correctly.
A scent mark wasn’t as permanent as a bite, but it was the first step in the process.
I’d refused to let the idea of it enter my mind because if I had, it would’ve never left.
“Yes.”
“Fuck yes.” I crashed my mouth onto Rowan’s, and what had been sweet was now fiery and fierce, needy and naked want.
Rowan’s invitation caused the evolutionary history in my genes to surge forward.
The omega had chosen.
He had chosen me.
I wrenched my mouth away long enough to strip out of my clothes and pull Rowan’s sleep pants off him.
Once naked, I fell on Rowan again.
I knew I needed to avoid agitating his recovery, but we could do other things to create a scent marking.
“Oh gods, Silas, I can’t wait.”
Who was I to argue with instructions like that?
I raised myself over Rowan and straddled his upper thighs.
With our precum for lube, I grasped our dicks in my hand.
The velvety heat filled my hand.
With my first movement, Rowan’s hand moved to grasp my thighs.
His tight grip stung but spurred me on to continue the firm strokes.
Rowan arched his back in mindless need.
It had been far too long for each of us.
The intoxicating scent of sea salt and honey filled the air as my long-dormant shifter core surged to the forefront.
As much as I wanted to feel his channel around me, the concern of accidentally injuring him kept my hands and dick away.
I focused on the feel of his cock in my hand, with every stroke bringing us higher and closer to the marking.
Rowan’s keening cries seeped into my soul, and I worked hard to bring him satisfaction.
His slick’s scent was an irresistible draw.
I gently maneuvered his legs over my shoulders, then lowered my mouth to his core.
My tongue lapped at the sticky nectar that tasted like the essence of Rowan.
Rather than penetrate him, I focused on all the nerves that edged the rim of his hole.
He ground his ass against my mouth seeking more pressure.
We can be slow next time…
just mark me now.
”
“Sweetheart, are you sure?”
“Gods, yes. Mark me, Alpha.”
With his needed third and final request made, I increased the speed of my hand on our dicks and the pressure of my tongue.
Each stroke and lick brought us closer to the connection that would begin the bonding process.
The prickles at the base of my spine signaled my release was close, and I doubled my efforts.
My release triggered Rowan’s, and we spilled onto my fist.
I massaged our mixed fluids into the scent glands hidden on either side of his neck and along his clavicle.
Unless the scent mark was deliberately broken, Rowan’s unique taste would only be available to me, and I’d be unable to taste another omega.
We could cheat on each other, but the experience would be wholly unsatisfying to ourselves or the other person.
The gods were a tricky bunch.
“I need to feel you,” Rowan said as he jerked me fully onto him.
He wrapped his arms and legs around me like his limbs were made of Velcro.
His scent and heat surrounded me while his whispered words of praise filled my ears.
I buried my face in his neck and let the bond settle over us.
It was enough for now.