Chapter 16
MIKA
My Thursday nights were nothing if not predictable. I made spicy vegetable ramen and listened to autobiographical audiobooks until bedtime.
The text notification was overloud in my ear, halting the recounting of Mahatma Gandhi's early years. The happy chime I'd assigned to Gabe sent a tingle up my spine, and my meerkat form woke up from his nap at the sound.
"Mind if I come over?"
My fingers flew across the keyboard, sending back "Please do," with a smiley-face emoji.
Afterward, as I glanced around my apartment, I cringed at last night's pizza box still sitting on the counter because it was too big to fit in my garbage, and the candy wrappers strewn across the coffee table.
I'd splurged on Easter candy to the point that the table looked like it belonged in my grandmother's sitting room.
She loved antiquing, so I had a set of three lidded carnival glass candy dishes now filled with jellybeans, butter candies, and cinnamon disks.
I sliced up the box with my retractable knife, scooped up all the empty wrappers, and took the trash out to the dumpster just as a red Honda pulled up to the curb.
Even before he had fully exited the car, I knew it was Gabe.
He seemed to sense me, too, glancing up at the balcony from which I'd tossed the garbage bag into the dumpster below.
We waved, and my chest felt lighter than it had since I'd taken him home Monday morning. I'd tried to deny it for two days, but now that he had returned, the truth slammed into me. If it had been a shark shifter, it would have knocked me off the balcony.
One month in, and I couldn't live without my mate. I didn't want to spend another night away from him. "Move in with me," I said when we met outside my apartment door.
He chuckled. "You've seen my bookcases. Pretty sure you don't have room."
"Keep your apartment for storage," I said, hoping it made as much sense to him as it did to me. "Pack some clothes and toiletries and stay. I'll drive you to work each morning."
"I'll make you late every day." He shook his head.
"Then I'll pack a bag and come stay with you."
He blinked. "You've seen my bed."
We'd tried to fool around on his couch last Friday night, but a cushion gave way, depositing us on the wiry pullout frame. After he bandaged my bleeding knee with his first aid kit, his furniture had successfully deterred us from fooling around.
"You have a point," I said, ushering him into my apartment.
I flipped the lock before shoving him up against the door, my lips crashing into his, our bodies desperate to merge despite the clothes between us.
I managed to kick off my shoes and coax him out of his while pinning him against the wall beside the umbrella stand.
"You have a very nice bed," he said against my lips before nipping and kissing down my neck. "The location, though …"
"You could take the Chevy on the days I work from home." I picked him up, and he wrapped his legs around me for the short trip to the bedroom.
"I never learned how to drive," he lamented when I dropped him on the springy mattress. He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it on the floor.
"I'll pay for your rideshares."
That seemed simple enough, but Gabe shook his head again. "It's too much. I couldn't afford to pay you back."
I tackled him, shoving him up toward the headboard and flattening him beneath me. My kisses turned to love bites along his jaw and down his chest. "I want more time with you." To prove my point, I held him down and kissed, licked, and nipped at his nipples, making him squirm until he begged.
"Mark and claim me, please."
The words stopped me cold, and I sat back on my heels.
"I mean it, Mika. I can't stay here with you, and we'd be miserable at my place, but I want to be with you so much it hurts. I want you to mark me and put your baby in me. Then, you'll be with me, even when you're not by my side."
If anyone else had told me they wanted to carry my baby, I would have run away screaming. Now, hearing my mate, my Gabe, say he wanted to wear my mark so everyone knew he was mine, and carry my baby so a piece of me was always with him? That was the most precious thing to me in the whole world.
"Say it again."
"Mark me and make me pregnant, alpha," he said in his bossy teacher tone.
"We're wearing too many clothes," I reminded him.
It didn't take long to strip out of my t-shirt and shorts, but I stopped, dumbstruck by his gorgeous body lying in the middle of my bed. I'd seen him naked several times now, and each was special. Today would be the last time the angle of his neck and shoulder would be smooth and pristine.
I leaned over him, placing a reverent kiss against his flesh. "Mine."
He nodded. "Yours." He let out a shaky breath and whispered, "I wish I could mark you, too."
"You're my fated mate," I said. "If you bite me when I bite you, it should take."
"But it'll hurt you!"
"Not for long." Human teeth were blunt and pinched like hell before they broke skin, but the mate bond was supposed to be orgasmic, and my meerkat healing would take over before he did any permanent damage.
"But—"
I interrupted him with a kiss, letting instinct rule. Logic would only confuse us.
Gabe tugged me closer, pulling on my ears and lifting his legs until he had me where he wanted me, with my cock sliding along the slick split between his ass cheeks. It caught on the rim of his channel, and he sucked in a breath. "Please," he whispered. "Now."
I raised up on an elbow, my gaze locked on his blown pupils and kiss-slick lips as I guided my cock to his hole with my free hand.
Too late, I realized I should have prepped him for me.
He'd told me he'd never been with an alpha, and my cock was a lot to take, naturally lubricating channel or not.
I bucked my hips backward, but he circled his legs around my waist, pulling me down until his tight rim spread and let me in.
"I've been practicing with a knotted dildo for a week," he said. "Don't pull out now."
I groaned into his neck as I imagined him riding a silicone knot. "Did you enjoy it?"
"It wasn't as thick as yours," he said. "Left me wanting more."
I kissed over the spot I would mark, but it was too soon. Trailing kisses up his neck and along his jaw, I rolled my hips, working my way inside until my balls slapped against his ass.
"Move," Gabe said before I could catch my breath. "I need to feel it."
Unsure what "it" was, I pumped my hips, losing myself in the sensation of his channel squeezing around my cock like a hot, wet mouth. "You feel amazing."
His only responses were tiny whimpers when my cock grazed his prostate. I changed the angle until his whimpers became grunts, and then cries for more over the obscene squelching sounds our bodies made together.
I leaned up on my elbows, watching Gabe thrash beneath me with his eyes pinched closed and sweat dampening his hair. He looked lost in the best way. My chest felt too tight around my swelling heart.
I smoothed his hair back from his forehead and held him in place for a sloppy kiss. He kissed me back, equally frantic, each breath a long wordless moan as he neared the edge.
Too soon, my knot flared. I slipped a hand between us, scooping up some excess slick before sliding it over his straining cock, which had left a trail of sticky precome on my abs.
Gabe's eyes sprang open. He cried out as his cock kicked, and warm spurts of cum sprayed my torso and dribbled over my fingers.
His channel constricted around me, and I tumbled into ecstasy, tucking my head against his neck as my cock spurted repeatedly, filling him with cum and locking it inside with my knot.
Twisting my head, I partially shifted so my snout full of sharp meerkat teeth could bite down on the flesh at the slope where his neck met his shoulder, leaving my distinctive alpha mark on him and binding us forever.
Gabe's cock kicked again when I returned to my human form, licking the trace of blood away from the already-healing mark. Then, I rolled onto my back, taking him with me, my hands clamped on his hips to avoid hurting him. Once he was securely on top of me, I bared my neck. "Mark me."
He hesitated for a second before diving and clamping onto my skin. It hurt for a moment, but then the bond tightened between us.
I didn't know which way was up or how long we stayed suspended in orgasmic bliss, but I never wanted to leave it. Our hearts beat as one, our thoughts aligned in harmony, and our bodies seemed to shatter apart and reform as one entity.
When my cock softened and slipped out of him, I still felt the connection between us, as though my body wasn't entirely my own. It belonged to him now, too.
Gabe flopped against my side, tucking his head in the crook of my arm and kissing my pec. "I have a way we could spend more time together," he drawled, "but you'll probably hate it."
"I won't," I said. "I'd do anything to see you more."
"Let's move in with your parents."
To be fair, I didn't hate the idea. "For you, anything."
I couldn't wait until Sunday dinner to drop the news on my mom. For one, she'd never forgive me for waiting that long. For two, she would take it out on us by being aggressively cheerful for the first month, making it a living hell.
Instead, I called her after hugging Gabe goodbye.
Even after everything we'd done, the night ended too soon, and I didn't want to let him go.
The ride share driver honked her horn until I opened Gabe's door for him.
Then, I gave him a quick kiss and shut him inside.
She shared her displeasure by peeling out of the parking lot.
I dialed Mom's number as the red lights disappeared around a corner. I left her a voicemail because she never answered the phone.
"Hey, Mom. We need to talk about my old room, and maybe setting up a shuttle to the courthouse five times a week. Give me a call back and let me know what you think. Love you, bye."
The return call came a few moments later.
"What? Seriously?" She bypassed "Hi," to bombard me with disbelief. "You guys are really moving in? Really? Oh, you've made me so happy!"
"I know, Mom," I sighed in mock frustration. "That's why I didn't want to do this."
"Oh, stop it. You know, I'm just ... I love my kids, and I miss you. You need to come home. It's about time, especially now that you've met your fated mate."
I didn't know what to say. I waited until she filled the silence again.
"Well, that's great. I'll have to plan more vegetarian dishes for our evening meals."
"You don't need to feed us. I can take care of that."
"What? Don't be ridiculous. When you live in my house, you can relax and let me take care of the bills. You can save money for your 401k or your kids' college funds. Speaking of kids, have you marked him yet?"
"Not that it's any of your business, but yeah, that's what led to this decision."
"Is he already pregnant?"
"Mom, stop."
Another uncomfortable silence loomed between us, but she caved first. "Okay, fine. But you know I'll be able to sniff it out by Sunday. When are you moving?"
"I'll figure it out with Gabe. On the day, we'll need to borrow a truck and a storage unit for all his books."
"Done and done." I could hear the smile in her voice. "Just let me know the day, and I'll bake cookies like it's Christmas."
She was still muttering a list of ingredients when I hung up.
Gabe had a week off coming up, thanks to two judges taking vacation at the same time and leaving the courtroom empty. I took a half-day on the Friday before his time off to help him pack, and then we moved his books into a newly vacated storage unit.
Thankfully, ours was closer to the main door than my mom's. Gabe had packed thirty copier paper boxes full of books. The longer the walk, the heavier they became. By the time I reached the unit with the last box, my arms felt like they were made from the same lead filling the boxes.
The next morning, we moved the rest of our stuff into my old bedroom, including two more boxes of books. "I'll probably have to switch them out before we move into our house," Gabe told me when I raised an eyebrow at him.
"You are the only person I know who would say two boxes of books wasn't enough to last you eight months."
He shrugged. "I read a lot." He pointed to the second box, marked "art books." "I used to flip through those for inspiration. It's been a long time since I've had any of that, though."
"What about your meerkat drawings?" I asked, remembering the drawings that had slipped from his sketchbook when I'd moved it all those Saturdays ago.
A pretty blush ran along the edges of his high cheekbones. "You weren't supposed to see those, but yes, I was moved by a certain little creature's introduction into my life. What can I say? You're my muse."
"You'll see more of him here," I said. "We do a pack run every Saturday night."
"Like … tonight?" Gabe had looked completely drained on the ride from the storage facility to the house, but now he perked up.
"Tonight, if you're up for it. Dad and some other non-shifters hang out on the patio and stargaze while we rummage for bugs and dig new tunnels."
He sighed. "Will my dad be there?"
"Possibly." Jerry lived on the warehouse's third floor now. We'd briefly hung out with him after dinner last Sunday, but where my mom and I could sit in comfortable silence most of the time, between Gabe and his dad it stretched like a wire about to snap. "If you want me to stay with you, I will."
He shook his head. "I want to see your meerkat in the wild, like watching the nature show."
"It's nothing like the show." Still, it would be a relaxing end to a busy day.