Chapter Seven
As Davey came down from his climax, Lawson continued to kiss him, peppering little touches of his lips over his cheek, his jawline and onto his neck.
Davey’s arms gave out and he straightened his elbows and lay back, staring up at the sky. A single white cloud was trailing over the perfect blue.
“How was it?” Lawson released Davey’s cock and ran his finger up his abdomen and through the cum sitting there.
“I can honestly say it was the most intense climax I’ve ever had.”
“That’s how I felt yesterday, when you put me in your mouth and wrapped your sexy tongue around my dick.”
“I guess we’re thoroughly compatible, despite being a cat and a dog.”
“We go together like the moon and the stars.”
Davey raised his eyebrows and looked at Lawson. “Quite the romantic, aren’t you?”
“Never have been before.” He chuckled and lay down next to Davey so their heads were close and their shoulders touching.“So what are we gonna do? Your pack ain’t going to like the fact you’ve chosen a cat shifter for your mate.”
“I didn’t choose you. It’s how our destinies were mapped out. How it’s meant to be.”
“Yeah, I know.” Lawson reached for Davey’s hand. “But still, it’s gonna be a shock for them. It doesn’t matter to me. I’ve lived alone since my teens, there’s no one to tell.”
“You’ve lived alone by choice?”
“Yeah. It was a real feral instinct in me. I didn’t want company. Even in my human form I wanted solitude and the forest and mountains was the place that delivered the space I needed.”
“So do you spend most of your time as a lion?”
“About a third of it.”
That was about the same as Davey’s ratio. “And when you’re a human?”
“I have a cabin, about six miles from here, over the other side of the canyon. I built it myself. It’s isolated, no one but me has ever been there.” He squeezed Davey’s fingers. “Though of course I hope that will all change now I have you.”
“I’d love to see it.”
“Will you come with me now and live there?”
“What, just go without saying goodbye to my pack?”
Lawson was silent.
Davey turned to look at him. “I can’t. I’m a dog, a pack animal. I need to speak to my Alpha, let him know.” He paused. “Apart from anything else, they’ll worry about me and come searching.”
“Ah yes, that one yesterday was rather overbearing. I heard him, from a safe distance of course.”
“He smelled you, you know?”
“Yeah, I smelled him too, still could when I came back here today.” He wrinkled his nose.
“And my scent. Does that disgust you too?”
Lawson frowned. “I have to say I’m getting used to your dog scent even though I wouldn’t want it bottled as an aftershave or anything. And your human scent... Well, that just turns me on.” He drew Davey’s hand up and kissed his knuckles.
“Good, I’m glad.” Davey paused. His thoughts were swirling in his head. He wanted to spend time in Lawson’s isolated cabin, just the two of them, free to indulge in all the sex their bodies could handle and with no curious eyes, human or shifter, watching them. “So we’ve established we wanna be together, right?”
“Absolutely.” Lawson tensed his jaw and a muscle flexed beneath the skin.
“And I think we should spend a lot of time in your cabin, it sounds idyllic. But—”
“Now you’re the one with the but .”
“I’m sorry...” He smiled. “But I need to be able to show the pack why I’m gonna be spending so much time away.”
“Show them?”
“Yeah.” He paused and hoped he wasn’t about to ignite their first row. “I need you to come to the camp.”
“What?” Lawson sat and twisted to look down at Davey. “They’ll attack me.”
“No. No they won’t.” He sat. “Not if I go and speak to Aleco first, explain the situation. I want, no, need to be able to have you there going forward.” He paused. “The pack is my family. All the family I have.”
Lawson was silent. He closed his eyes, pulled in a deep breath and held it there with his chest inflated.
After a few seconds, Davey could hold his tongue no more. Panic had set in. “But I don’t have to. It’s fine. I’ll come with you. I’ll never see them again. You’re the most important thing in the world to me, above all else.” The words had tumbled out. The terror of losing Lawson far outweighed the pain he’d feel if he never saw his pack again. He’d sacrifice anything for him—there was no cost too great.
Lawson released his breath. “No. I could never ask that of you.”
Davey was silent. He sensed there was more, could almost hear the cogs of his mate’s mind working.
“I will come to your camp and meet the pack on one condition.” Lawson’s expression was steely.
“Of course, anything.” He’d walk on hot coals if that was what Lawson wanted him to do.
“You have to clear it with your Alpha first and he must give me absolute guarantee the dogs will not set upon me. I could take down a few in my shifter form, but a whole pack… It could get nasty.”
“No one will hurt you, I promise.” There was light in Davey’s heart. Perhaps this would work out. Maybe Lawson would be accepted.
“You can’t promise me that.” Lawson shook his head. “But your Alpha can, and if he does, I’ll walk in there in my lion form and shift to prove I’m your destined mate and you’re mine.”
“You’d do that for me?”
“I’d do anything for you.” He leaned over and kissed Davey. A deep satisfying kiss holding a thousand promises about the future they had together.
****
Davey strolled back into the camp carrying the ax as twilight stretched shadows over the grassy areas. Flo was poking a fire with a long stick, Raul standing next to her. It was still strange not to see their third, Malec, with them even though he’d been away for a few months now. Certainly a sense of sadness seemed to lie over them. The sooner he was back the better.
Pedro was sitting with Julie on the wall, nursing a beer. Patrick, Greg and a few others were nearby, their hum of conversation gentle. A couple of shifters were in dog form, sniffing about, no doubt enjoying the cool after a hot day.
Davey stopped. He hoped to hell Lawson had stayed far enough downwind for his scent not to drift to the camp.
“Davey.”
At the sound of his name, Davey turned.
Aleco stood a few feet from him, arms crossed over his broad chest and his gray beard looking almost black in the dimming light.
“Aleco.” Davey nodded.
“Where have you been all day?”
“In the forest.” He held up the ax. “Chopping.”
“There doesn’t appear to be a great deal of firewood with you.”
“I…er…no. It’s piled up. I’ll go back and get it tomorrow.”
Aleco stepped a little closer. He narrowed his eyes and breathed deep.
Davey moved back.
What the hell is he doing?
Aleco didn’t have super scent in his human form. “Something is different about you, Davey.”
“Is it?”
“Yes. It’s in your eyes, the way you’re standing. If I were in my dog body I’d bet you’d smell different too.”
“Why would you think that?”
“I know you, have done since you were a pup.”
Davey swallowed. He’d have to bite the bullet and tell his Alpha what was going on.
“Oh, spit it out,” Aleco said. “I’m not gonna snap your head off.”
“You might…well, not mine.”
Aleco frowned and uncrossed his arms. “Now I’m really intrigued.”
Davey set the ax down and stared at the ground. “I’m in love.” There, he’d said it and it was the most wonderful declaration he’d ever made.
Aleco was quiet for a moment, then, “That’s wonderful news, but how come you’re not bouncing around like a spring? You look positively miserable.”
Davey closed his eyes. This was it. Aleco was a fair leader, a good man, someone Davey aspired to be like, but would he allow a cat into the pack?
“Davey, you’ve got me worried.” Aleco rested his hand on Davey’s shoulder. Davey met his eyes. “It’s complicated.”
“Is it a human woman?”
Davey huffed. “Oh no, definitely not a woman, and definitely a shifter.”
“So where’s the problem?”
“My mate, the one I’m destined for is a—”
“Cat!” One of the dogs, Burton, who’d been nearby had shifted. He now stood tall, pointing at the forest. “It’s that way.”
“It might be a mountain lion.” Raul jumped up. “I’ve been scenting one nearby too.”
Aleco turned his attention back to Davey. He had a knowing glint in his eye. “You knew there was a lion nearby, right?”
“Yeah.” Davey nodded. He beat down a tremble in his belly which was threatening to radiate outward. “I did.”
“And this is your mate…a cat.”
“A mountain lion, yes.”
“They’re dangerous beasts when shifted.”
“So are we, when we’re in a pack.”
Aleco tugged at his beard and clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth.
“I love him,” Davey said. “And he loves me. Like your son Neo I have found my other half, the part of my soul that has been missing.”
“You’re sure about this?”
“One hundred percent. I didn’t even know if I was gay until I met him, then one look and bang. He’s all I will ever want.”
“And where did you meet him?”
“When I was in the trap. He saved me.”
“Saved you?”
“Yeah, he shifted and released it, allowed me to get back here.” Davey held out his hands. “But we were drawn back together, like yin and yang, the ocean following the moon, birds migrating home. There was nothing we could do to stop it.”
“Which, of course, is the way with a mate.” Aleco sighed and dragged his hand through his mop of gray-streaked hair. “The pack won’t like it. A cat has never stepped foot in the camp before.”
“I understand. And that’s why I came back today with Lawson.”
“That’s his name?”
“Yeah.” Davey glanced about.
The pack was restless. Pedro and Raul had shifted and Raul was sniffing the area in front of Davey’s cabin.
“Lawson wanted me to go away now with him, leave the pack forever. He’s solitary, doesn’t like crowds of more than one.”
“That’s a big ask, to just up and leave.”
“I said I couldn’t do it. You’re my family. I had to see if you could accept him as my mate and allow him here, with me.”
“You are a much-loved member of the pack. We’d have been deeply saddened if you’d left without a goodbye.”
“Thank you.” Davey swallowed, holding back a lump of emotion.
“It’s the truth.” Aleco paused. “And your lion is willing to come here, face a pack of dogs whose gut instinct will be fight or flight. And let’s face it, we’d have casualties but there are too many of us for a lion to take on.”
“Yeah, for me, he’s willing.”
Aleco nodded slowly. “Okay, that’s enough for me. Go get him while I calm the pack and do my best to get them under control. But, Davey…”
“Yeah?”
“I hope you can control him .”