Chapter Six
Leyden felt himself relax as the two men enjoyed some delicious food.
As he expected with a mate, he found that Connor enjoyed similar things to him - exercising and working out, watching movies, music, although Connor confessed to not having ever danced.
He described his one and only experience in going to a club and Leyden tried not to laugh.
Leyden loved to dance, and he agreed with Connor that dancing was excellent foreplay.
They also talked about families. Connor had parents still alive, but they had moved away after Connor was grown.
Leyden told about his parents, who lived in a neighboring town, and his tense relationship with his father when they both found out Leyden was an alpha too.
Two alphas couldn’t live in the same pack, and eventually Leyden had moved out.
He came across his current territory when the alpha was old and ready for a change.
After the two men had spent a week together talking about what the alpha wanted for his pack, Leyden had challenged him and allowed him to submit.
The old alpha had moved away to be closer to his family and Leyden had taken over the running of the pack.
Having watched his mate through the day, Leyden noticed that when there wasn’t any danger of being treated like a sex toy, Connor was really good with people.
He came across as rugged and mean, but he never made anyone feel bad about themselves, and Leyden knew the Fates had made a good match for him.
Connor was also clever and had pointed out a few problems with some of the candidates for the beta challenge that Leyden hadn’t even noticed.
Leyden felt good that Connor was on his side.
One thing had been puzzling Leyden though, and while he didn’t want to spoil the happy atmosphere between the two of them, by the time dessert had been served, he felt compelled to ask, “How do you know when you know someone? How do you know when you feel comfortable enough with someone to try and have a sexual relationship with them?”
Connor looked up from his apple pie and cream, a spoon raised to his mouth. Very deliberately, it seemed to Leyden, the man took his mouthful, and Leyden wanted to moan out loud when the man’s tongue flicked out, catching a piece of pie crumb from his lips.
“I’m not sure,” Connor said at last, after he had swallowed his mouthful. And had Leyden watched the play of the man’s Adam’s apple in the candlelight? He very definitely had. Leyden kept quiet, hoping Connor would explain more.
“I know it hasn’t happened to me before and I really don’t know a lot about it,” Connor went on at last. “I did some reading online. I know I feel differently than other people. But I think it’s different for everyone.
I know I like the idea of sex - at least, I watch porn and it doesn’t disgust me, and I’ve seen others in the pack having sex often enough and that doesn’t really bother me either. ”
“So some demisexuals are actually disgusted with the idea of having sex?”
Connor glared at Leyden for a moment, and Leyden kicked himself because of course it hadn’t been Connor that had mentioned he was demisexual, it had been Davis.
But Connor must have come to some sort of decision in his head because he said, “I don’t know what it is like for other people.
I’ve read that some people who are on the asexual spectrum are disgusted with the idea of having sex.
But at the same time anyone from any of the many labels there are under that umbrella can also have sex.
Some of them even have a high sex drive.
Personally I don’t hold with labels at all.
We are all individuals, so it stands to reason we are all different.
I only know that I have never felt sexual desire for another person. ”
“But your equipment works, right?”
“Yes,” Connor said, snagging another mouthful of his apple pie. “I get a morning hard-on just like any other male, and yes, before you ask, I do masturbate on occasion.”
Leyden’s eyes lit up. He couldn’t wait to see that. “Awesome,” he said with a grin. “We can get ourselves off together.”
Connor laughed, as he hoped he would, and Leyden finished his dessert.
After paying the bill, and Leyden holding the door open for Connor, which made the big man blush, they headed out to the car and back to the pack house in comfortable silence.
Leyden was glad that Connor wasn’t a man who seemed to have a need to fill a silence with meaningless chatter - Leyden got enough of that through the day with his pack members.
It was nice just being with someone and not having to be on his game all the time.
It wasn’t until Leyden drove up the driveway to his home that Connor spoke.
“What does desire feel like?”
Leyden parked the car and turned in his seat to look at the man who would be with him forever. Connor had a worried look on his rugged face and Leyden wondered what was behind the question.
“I’m not sure,” he said echoing Connor’s earlier words.
“I think that’s different for everyone, too.
For me, I get the compulsion to touch your skin and feel you naked against me.
I get a burning in my stomach whenever you’re around and my skin tingles as though craving your touch.
My lips ache with the desire to want to kiss you, to taste you, and my hands seem to have a mind of their own when it comes to wanting to touch you. ”
“You feel all that for me?” Connor seemed almost awed by his response and again Leyden was struck with not knowing why. Hadn’t anyone tried to talk to the man before they tried to get him into bed?
“From the moment I saw you,” Leyden said honestly.
He turned, and opened his car door and was pleased when Connor did the same.
The two men quickly walked through the house, and Leyden opened his bedroom door, smiling at Connor who blushed as he went through.
Then Connor let out an almighty roar and leaped, shifting as he went, clothes ripping and falling to the floor as a ginormous wolf pounced on something in the room.
Hurrying into his room, Leyden stopped, his mouth wide open, unable to believe what he was seeing.
Connor, still in his giant wolf form, was on Leyden’s bed.
But that wasn’t what surprised Leyden. It was the sight of Lonnie and Trixie - naked on his bed, currently cowering under the wolf - that Leyden didn’t understand.
He had explained to his two previous lovers when he got back from the meet and greet that he had found his mate, and he had told Lonnie exactly the same thing in his office earlier in the day.
What the hell were the two of them doing, infusing their fucking scent in the bedroom Leyden wanted to share with his mate?
Connor hadn’t stopped growling and the sound was so loud, so powerful, that Leyden knew he was going to have to control his mate before he could deal with his two pack mates.
Hurrying to Connor’s side, Leyden gently touched the wolf’s shoulder, fully appreciating the roll of muscles under his hand.
Connor had the power to be an Alpha in his own right if he had wanted to and Leyden was struck again about how lucky he was with his new mate. That is, if the man didn’t leave him.
Under his hand, Connor’s growling slowed to a deep rumble, but the wolf’s eyes never left the two people on the bed.
“What the hell do you two think you are doing here? You know I have a mate and won’t have anyone else in my bed now,” Leyden said.
It surprised him that he felt so calm. He had thought that Connor would rip the two interlopers to pieces but instead the wolf had done nothing but threaten the hapless pair.
Trixie looked at Lonnie and then back at Leyden.
“Well…er…Lonnie said that you and your mate weren’t having sex, so we figured you hadn’t claimed him yet. Given that you two just seemed to want to talk to each other…well, when Lonnie was in your office he knew your mate didn’t desire you. So we thought…”
“So you thought what exactly?” Leyden snarled. “You thought you would come into my room like common tarts laid out for consumption and I would rather fuck you than my mate? That I would claim you two?”
“We desire you. He doesn’t,” Lonnie burst out, with a cautious look at Connor who still hadn’t stopped growling and was looking more menacing by the second. Leyden strengthened his grip on Connor’s shoulder knowing that his mate would understand.
“You deserve someone who worships your body, who gets hard at the sound of your voice. Someone who will submit to you willingly every night if that’s what you want,” Lonnie went on. “That’s what a true mate would do. That’s what we would do for you.”
Connor nudged Leyden’s hand off his shoulder and climbed off the bed. Shifting into his human form, Connor stood magnificently naked. But Leyden didn’t have a chance to appreciate the miles of muscles, as Connor walked over and grabbed his overnight bag and made to leave the room.
“They’re right, and I can’t do that to you,” he said as he walked away, leaving Leyden with his mouth open and a hard-on that wouldn’t quit. Damn, that man looked amazing in the buff. Too stunned to do anything else, Leyden watched his mate walk out of his house and out of his life.