Chapter 8
SHEP
Rylan was a warm, pliant weight in my arms. After I cut his hair the night before and watched as every dark tuft fell from him like a weight lifted, he'd been dead on his feet.
I’d quickly swept up the loose hair on the floor and then made sure the house was all locked up while Rylan took a quick shower.
After that, I’d given him one of my shirts, watched it swallow his smaller frame and pulled him into the bed to sleep.
It was easily the best night of sleep I'd ever had. My bear was totally content, rumbling happily in my chest. My mate was safe. His scent was calm and warm in my nose.
My pack was safe and so many of them were under my roof. In all my years, I had never felt such ease.
Lying there now, Rylan snuggled closer, his nose snuffling at my collarbone and tickling the hair on my chest. As the minutes ticked by, he started to squirm a little. I thought for a moment he was having a bad dream.
“Rylan, sweetheart, wake up.”
The undercurrent in his scent changed. It grew deeper, spicier, filling the room and my head with undeniable notes of arousal.
It dawned on me quickly—my mate was going into heat.
I ran my hand over the newly short hair on his head. The style suited him.
He hummed and snuggled closer.
I let out a little chuckle. “Sweetheart, I need you to wake up now.”
Slowly, he opened his eyes. “Shep?” Ry’s voice was soft, sleepy and possibly the sweetest thing I’d ever heard.
“Good morning, sweetheart. Can you wake up for me?”
He blinked several times, shaking off his slumber. His brow furrowed for a moment before his eyes shot open wide. “I’m—”
“Yes,” I said, keeping my voice soft and rubbing a palm up and down his back. “Tell me what you need from me.”
He took a shaky breath and pushed himself up to sit beside me. He crossed his legs and turned so we were facing each other.
“Truthfully, I don’t know. Trent didn’t let any of us spend our heats alone. Whether it was him or one of the others.” He looked down, fiddling with the blanket pooling around him. “For me, it was always him. He didn’t hurt me, but I didn’t really want him either.”
Even though I’d assumed as much, hearing Rylan say it out loud made rage burn through me.
My bear wanted blood. How dare that monster treat our mate like that?
Treat anyone like that. At that moment, I vowed to stop him.
Whatever I had to do. Whatever favors I had to call in.
He would never hurt anyone else the way he’d hurt Rylan and the others again.
I sat up farther as well, pushing myself to lean fully against the headboard.
“I’ll get you settled in here. It should last about a day, right?
I have a mini fridge in the garage I can bring in for drinks and food.
” I threw the covers off my legs and scooted to the edge of the bed, thoughts picking up steam as a plan formed in my mind.
“We’ll find you a heating pad. Ice packs—”
Rylan’s fingers closed around my wrist.
I looked back at him and found him smiling at me, a small, sweet twist of his lips.
“Or… You could spend it with me.”
My heart leapt in my chest and kicked up to a thundering rhythm. “Ry…”
He moved closer, slinking around until he settled himself across my lap. He cupped my face between his palms.
“Listen, I’ve never had the choice about spending my heat with someone, and maybe I should want to spend it alone. But I don’t. I’d rather spend it with you.”
I stared into his eyes. Clear, bright blue orbs looked back at me. At that moment, I knew I’d never be able to deny him anything. I swallowed against the lump building in my throat. Forever wouldn’t be long enough to earn the trust he was placing in me. “I’d be honored to spend your heat with you.”
He smiled, small and pleased, before a full body shudder left him trembling in my lap. The scent of his arousal filled the room. I’d never smelled anything more intoxicating.
“I want your knot now,” he said, grinding down in my lap and making my already interested cock throb.
Wrapping him up in my arms, I brought our lips together in a slow kiss that quickly turned slick and hot when he swept his tongue against my lower lip. Was there anything sexier than him taking what he needed from me? My bear rumbled in my chest, primed and ready to let Rylan have it all.
He whined against my lips and pulled at my shoulders as he rolled his hips again. “I want you.”
Taking his face in my hands, I shushed him, pressing gentle kisses to his cheeks, his nose, his eyelids. “You have me.”
The heat beneath his skin warmed my hands and seared my legs where he still straddled me, but when our gazes locked, his eyes were still lucid.
“Ry, sweetheart, how —”
“Like this,” he said, immediately. “With him it was… He was always behind me. I want to see that it’s you.”
The growl building in my chest escaped before I could stop it.
Getting my hands under his ass, I stood, keeping one hand supporting him.
I used the other to push down one side and then the other of my pajama pants.
My underwear went with them. I shimmied to get the bundle down my legs and kicked it to the side.
Turning, I stood Ry up on the bed. He reached for the hem of his oversized shirt, but I stilled his hands.
“Let me.”
He swallowed, pink splotches dusting his cheeks and getting darker with every second.
Tugging upward, I lifted the shirt, revealing miles of his lithe, toned body. He helped me pull the shirt over his head and dropped it to the floor.
I growled again at the sight of him. He hadn’t worn his briefs to bed, leaving him bare for my gaze to feast on.
I slid my palms down over his chest, circling over his stiff little nipples before continuing down his sides.
The supple slide of his skin was a revelation—such resilient strength wrapped up in his soft, wanting body.
“You’re beautiful, sweetheart,” I told him, leaning in to press a kiss against his sternum. His cock beckoned me, straining up toward his belly with its shiny tip.
This close the scent of him filled every inch of my lungs, my head, my heart.
I took that glistening tip into my mouth. Rylan gasped and grabbed two handfuls of my hair as he let out the sweetest little whine.
“Don't tease me, Shep, please.”
And since I couldn't deny him anything, I savored my mouthful for another moment and released him. Taking hold of his hips, I urged him to step back so I could crawl onto the bed.
As soon as I was situated with my back to the headboard, he was on me.
He crashed our lips together, plunging his tongue into my mouth.
At the same time, he reached behind himself and gripped the length of me in a surprisingly strong fist. He sank down so quickly, his slick, hot channel squeezing me like a vise.
A half growl, half moan ripped out of my chest. I tore my lips away from his to pant against his cheek.
Rylan was lost in the lust of his heat and rode me in earnest. He groaned, bracing himself with his hands on my shoulders.
The whole time his glittering blue gaze never left my face.
I kept a sure grip on his hips, helping him move when his rhythm started to falter.
“Shep, I'm close,” he cried as he drove himself down onto my cock again. “I need your knot now.”
Tightening my grip on his hips to still him, I planted my feet and drove up into him over and over.
The pleasure was euphoric. So achingly good it stole my breath and left me gasping.
In only a few strokes, the dam holding my orgasm at bay burst wide open as my knot began to swell—the base of my cock expanding and locking us together.
Rylan stilled completely, breath frozen in his lungs for a moment before he moaned and the hot jets of his release splattered across my chest.
My own release poured out of me into the warm confines of his waiting body. As pleasure more potent than any I'd ever known filled me completely, I slid my arms around him and brought us chest to chest. I kissed him gently on the forehead before pressing an equally soft touch to his lips.
He nuzzled into me, wrapping his arms around me, too.
***
RYLAN
As my heart slowed, I let myself sink into my mate’s arms. The moment Shep’s knot had locked us together, the heat frenzy building in my blood shattered.
Resting against his chest now, I’d never felt so content, so at ease. Before, my heats had left me unsettled and feeling like no amount of washing would ever make me clean.
My eyes burned as emotion built up in my chest. Having an alpha’s knot broke the symptoms of heat, but I never knew it could be like this.
“I’ve got you, love,” Shep whispered against my ear. His big warm hands started making slow passes up and down my back, soothing me.
Taking a deep breath, I pushed myself back enough to meet his gaze. His knot was already starting to shrink inside me. Part of me wished we’d be held together longer, but I knew the cum and slick already all over us would only get more uncomfortable the longer we delayed a shower.
“You okay?” Shep asked. His hands settled on my hips again, thumbs brushing back and forth over my waist.
I smiled at him. “I really am. Thank you for this. It was…” Heat rushed up into my face. I felt silly considering he still had his knot buried inside me, but somehow telling him I’d never felt this way with anyone seemed much more vulnerable.
Leaning forward, he caught my chin and tilted it until I met his gaze again.
“This was my pleasure.” One corner of his lips ticked up.
“If you haven’t figured it out already, I’m sure you soon will…
there’s nothing I won’t give you if I can.
” For a moment, it was him looking down like he was bashful before he focused back on me.
“You’ve already got my heart, Rylan. I’ll give you anything. ”
Those tears I’d been fighting came rushing back. “You’ve got my heart, too. I know we just met, but I’ve never trusted someone like I already trust you.”
“Believe me when I say I will work every day to be worthy of it.” He wrapped me up and kissed me, slow and sweet. Just when he swiped his tongue along my bottom lip, and I felt arousal starting to build again—something that had never once happened so soon after a heat—there was a knock on the door.
Shep pulled back with a little sigh. “Yes?”
“Sorry to bother you, Shep,” Thorn said through the door. “But we’ve got a problem. Milo’s gone.”