Chapter 13
GABE
Mika in a tux was a gorgeous sight to behold. Out of his suit and shirtless on the volleyball court, he exuded effortless sex appeal. He was the hottest man I'd ever seen as he bumped, set, and spiked his way into my heart.
I was both proud and terrified when Mika spiked the sand-covered ball into Isiah's nose. At least he hadn't directed it at the bridesmaids who had teamed up with the shark shifter, though he was the one doing most of the running, diving, and spiking.
Thankfully, the ball wasn't overly firm and definitely not regulation standards. It didn't break his nose, though he would have deserved it after he'd covered Mika in bruises the night before.
"Take that, shark face!" I hollered through the net.
"Pipe down, side piece, or I'll sic your bestie on you."
"Side piece?" I mouthed at Mika. I scoffed. "Becca and Bruce are well on their way to consummating their marriage, so good luck with that."
"Good." Isiah grinned. "When they came back from the meeting, it looked like she was going to reject him."
The happy couple was nowhere to be found now that the photo shoot was over. I didn't know what had happened at their family meeting during the reception, but if Becca had glared at me like that, I would have assumed a declaration of World War, or worse. "What was it about, do you know?"
Isiah and Mika shared a look through the net.
"His family's loaded," Mika finally volunteered.
"There's no need for a prenup, since they're fated, but his dad made him wait until after the wedding to tell Becca.
The wolves thought it would make their marriage stronger, right off the bat, if she thought she was marrying all his money problems and then found out—"
"That's lying by omission," I said, "and a fucking horrible thing to do."
Mika held his hands up. I glanced down at the volleyball clutched between my fingers so tight there were grooves in it.
"Put the ball down, pipsqueak," Isiah said. "It's all right now. Becca knows Bruce isn't a complete loser, and he knows she was willing to give up a hell of a lot to be with him, but now …"
Now, my bestie could have that art studio in the tourist district, or maybe even one of the multi-million-dollar galleries on the wharf in San Francisco. "How much money are we talking?" I whispered to Mika.
"Let's just say what Mom has put into the compound, the wolves have put into their construction business, and the business doesn't depreciate in value."
Yeah, Becca would have her own gallery in no time. Nobody deserved it more, though. I couldn't deny the immediate weight lifted off my heart, knowing Bruce wasn't the deadbeat derelict Becca had assumed she would be bankrolling for the rest of her life.
I tossed the ball to Mika and faced the net. It was his turn to serve.
We played until it got too dark to see where the ball landed in the sand.
The women wandered off with a group of young men I assumed were wolf shifters.
Isiah mentioned going for a swim before he deposited his swim trunks on the shore and vanished into the surf.
I wanted to see him shift into his shark.
The fact that it was too dark reminded me why I feared of the creatures.
He blended with water so well, all I could see was a tiny trail cut into the waves by his dorsal fin.
"What do you say?" Mika asked. "Would you like to share a room with an alpha tonight?"
I snorted. "Pretty sure we shared a room last night."
"True, but nothing happened." Even in the dark, I could tell his bottom lip jutted out a little too far, and his head angled too close to his chest.
I stepped in front of him, gripping the warm skin of his shoulders. "Did you want something to happen?"
"What I want is irrelevant," he said. "You don't like being alone with an alpha."
"That was before," I said.
"Before?" His eyes filled with anticipation.
"I got to know you better," I said. To prevent myself from waxing poetic about his dreamy alpha qualities, I doused our conversation with the equivalent of ice water. "It was wonderful to watch you with your mom and dad today."
He grinned. "Wait till you meet my siblings tomorrow."
I remembered the text we'd sent my dad and groaned. "Oh no. Don't remind me. Family dinner?"
"Yes."
"Non-negotiable?"
"Mandatory."
"Damn it," I muttered against his lips. "Well, if we do something tonight, I might die of embarrassment tomorrow." I tugged on his hair, pulling him closer to kiss him properly. "That's a chance I'm willing to take."
We stumbled up the grassy hill in the dark, hands seeking and feet fumbling as we continued to kiss, grope, and shuffle toward the hotel.
At the first wolf whistle, we broke apart, returning to the present moment, where we were outside at a beach wedding reception.
Half the people milling around, smoking, drinking, and taking a break from dancing might recognize either of us.
Hand in hand, we dashed inside, giggling. When our gazes met, I couldn't look away. Mika was so handsome, even with the sandy imprint of a volleyball on the side of his neck.
In the elevator, my heart raced, and I felt giddy. This wasn't my first time, but it would be my first with an alpha. My alpha. My mate.
I wanted everything all at once, but I didn't know where to start. A blowjob seemed like the best place, the first base of casual hookups.
This wasn't a casual hookup, though. I wanted to take my time, to taste every inch of sandy, sweaty skin, to bury my face in his musk and drink him down.
When we were finally alone in the hotel room, Mika stopped me from kissing his neck with a laugh. "Let's shower first. I've got sand in places that would make my mom blush, and that's saying something."
He wasn't wrong. I too had sand where it didn't belong. When I tried to follow him into the bathroom, he locked me outside.
"Hey! We could shower together."
"Not this time," he said. "Let me get cleaned up. Tonight …"
He didn't have to finish the thought. I felt it too, the gravity of this momentous occasion. Our first time together should be special, not a fast fuck in the shower, grinding sand further into places that would make us sick later.
Well, there was still a chance of that, even after I scrubbed all my most private crevices squeaky clean. Somehow, I even had sand in my gums, grinding away at my sensitive flesh when I brushed my teeth.
I forgot all about the sand when I exited the bathroom and saw Mika stretched out on the bed, completely naked and stroking his shaft. A sweet smile graced his lips when he met my gaze through half-lidded eyes.
"I'm down for anything," he said, "but I understand if you don't want me to mark you tonight."
Despite the flutter in my chest, I spoke from my irritatingly logical mind. "It does seem like we're moving too fast. We just met. I get that we're fated mates, and I feel drawn to you like I've never been drawn to anyone."
"But." His hand stilled on his cock, and he opened his eyes wider.
"Are you really sure we're compatible after two weeks?"
With a slight shake of his head, Mika grinned. "Were Bruce and Becca sure after fifteen years?"
I swallowed back a deranged laugh as a joke about marriage being a lifetime gamble blasted into my brain unfiltered.
"We don't have to decide tonight." He patted the bed beside him. "Come here."
I couldn't resist the gentle pull his words had on my tattoo. I padded to the bed, loosening the loop of my towel until it dropped to the floor, leaving me as naked as he was.
My skin felt hot as his gaze traveled down the length of my body and back up.
I crawled over to him, deciding at the last possible second to angle my leg across his lap, straddling him.
Instead of feeling self-conscious, I took control.
Caressing his cheeks, I leaned down and rubbed my lips over his.
Even after hours outdoors, they were as soft as silk, and his tongue danced against mine when I let him in.
Time seemed to stop when we kissed. The connection of our lips transported us to another dimension where only we existed, sharing our breath, living for each new touch, aching to get even closer. If this was what it was like to have a fated mate, I was all for it.
"I need you," Mika whispered against my lips before trailing kisses along my jaw. "Please. Need it now. Want you inside me."
Wait, what? That wasn't the normal way of things. I was the Omega here. "You're vers?" I asked.
"Yeah. Is that so wrong?"
"No! No, not at all. I had no idea. Wow." I'd topped betas before, but I assumed I would have to give that up when I met my alpha. "You're telling me you'd let me fuck you? Just this once, or like—"
"No! Whenever you want. Whenever we want. If you don't want to—"
"Oh, no." I splayed my hand on his chest and met his liquid brown gaze. "I'm just astounded, that's all. You've changed my entire world view."
He frowned. "In a good way or a bad way?"
"So good." I tucked my chin against his shoulder and nibbled a trail of kisses up his neck. "Do you have condoms?"
"You don't need them." He squirmed beneath me, and his cock slid against mine, already slick with precome. "I can't catch human diseases. I also can't get pregnant."
I puffed a laugh against his throat, and he shivered. "Not with that attitude, you won't!"
He laughed with me. "I'm up for trying, if you are."
"Oh, yes." I kissed him again, claiming his mouth and leaving a promise of more unspoken.
I worshiped his body with featherlight nips and flicks of my tongue sweeping over the planes of his chest. His perked nipples were too tempting to resist on my way down.
I pinched both between my teeth, and Mika panted and squirmed.
When I laved the sensitive flesh with the flat of my tongue, he moaned.
As fun as it was to tease him, my mission's objective lay between his legs.
A thick line of sleek, still-damp hair ran between his pecs and narrowed above his belly button, pointing the way.
I held his hips down and plundered the divot with my tongue.
Soap mingled with the scent of his arousal.
I nosed my way lower, certain my sense of smell heightened around him.
Though I would never become a meerkat shifter, my animal instincts were on alert.
His cock bounced against my chin while I continued to explore his belly button. "Impatient much?" I asked, looking up the sleek planes of his body to meet his half-lidded stare.
"Sorry." His smug tone removed any sincerity from the word. I licked my lips, my only warning before swallowing him down, and immediately gagging. I'd expected long, but I hadn't prepared myself for how thick he was. Relaxing my jaw, I tried again, this time feeling him in the back of my throat.
It would require a lot of practice for me to take all of him, but that wasn't my goal tonight.
I wrapped my fingers around his base and stroked the exposed inches with one hand while I delved the fingers of my other hand into my slick hole, collecting as much as I could.
With those fingers, I followed Mika's taint to his smooth pucker and rubbed over his rim. His answering moan made my cock twitch.
"I love a man who knows how to use his slick on someone else." Mika spread his legs wider and flexed his hips. I slid two fingers inside his tight hole, coaxing him open with circular movements that soon had him thrusting into my mouth and crying out for, "More, please, Gabe, you're killing me."
I pulled off him and added a third finger, pressing inside until he froze and his shaft bounced, dripping precome into his soft pubic hair. "Need you now," he said, his fingers flexing toward my shoulders, though I was too far away to grab.
Or so I thought. With a burst of energy, he curled toward me, his ab muscles flexing, and latched on, pulling me down on top of him. He rolled with me, angling his knees to his chest.
"Wait!" I slid backward out of his grip. "Need more slick, or I'll hurt you."
He watched me, shaking his head, as I scooped more slick from my leaking hole and coated my cock with it.
"Hurry!" His arms flopped back to the bed, and he spread his legs wider for me, aroused, panting, and needy.
I still couldn't believe he wanted me: messy, broken, and a little frazzled after a perfectly imperfect day.
My usual debrief would be to lie in bed alone and rethink all my mistakes for the past twenty-four hours.
Instead, I was about to plunge my dick into the most gorgeous alpha I'd ever seen. And he wanted me to do it!
"Please, Gabe. Need you."
My head swam with pride as I leaned over him, dipping down for a sloppy kiss before lining my cock up with his entrance. His rim gave little resistance, and I let gravity pull me down, fitting us together like two puzzle pieces.
This was it. I was home, inside my alpha.