22. Jaime
Chapter 22
Jaime drove back home with the windows down, the evening air warm on his face. Spring was almost gone, now, fleeting as it was in Alaska, and the long days of summer were ahead of them.
He glanced out at the sea of blue and purple flanking the highway on his way around the lake, and thought of the lupine meadow he’d planted in his backyard last year.
A surge of emotion overcame him as he recalled how overjoyed he’d been to pull up to his house a few weeks ago with Finn, to find the first flowers just beginning to bloom. He’d waited all last summer to see it, only for them to go crispy and brown in the fall, no flowers in sight.
But not this year.
Jaime smiled. No longer did he yearn for what he couldn’t have, because it was already his, waiting for him to return home.
He’d met Sam for dinner at Andi’s, and she’d fed them until they were bursting. She hadn’t even let them order properly—she’d just sat them at their booth tucked into the back, and brought out plate after plate of incredible food.
Jaime had sweet-talked her into giving him the recipe for her Swedish meatballs, saying that he knew Finn wouldn’t be able to recreate them as good as hers were, but they were just so delicious that he had to try.
She’d winked at him, like she knew he was buttering her up, but she’d obliged anyway.
Sam and Jaime had walked around Silver Rapids after that, popping into the same bookstore that he and Finn had gone into on their first outing together. Apparently, Sheppard and DA Rivera had called in some favors with the local media, because they hadn’t mauled him since that first day at his house, and when he did catch someone staring for too long or taking pictures of him, Finn or Sam were usually there to glare until they went away.
But like Finn had said that very first day, something else would always come along to shift the spotlight, and Jaime was thankful that he was no longer at the center of that particular storm.
As for the Salt Creek pack, well, things were still tense, but no other threats had been made. They seemed content for now to leave Silas and his friends alone, including Jaime and Sam. Still, Finn whined at him to check in often whenever he went into town without a shifter with him, which really wasn’t often.
But things were getting better between him and his brother, and tonight Jaime hadn’t wanted a buffer between them. They weren’t the same as before, but Jaime wasn’t sure he would want to go back to that, if given the choice. He wanted to move forward—wanted to see what their friendship could grow into, if they tried to be more open with each other.
He knew Sam was still keeping things from him—he never wanted to talk about the stalker, and he always side-stepped any questions Jaime asked about Silas. But Jaime could tell that he was trying. Leaving his apartment to come to dinner and walk around town was a big step, and Jaime felt a pang of worry as he watched his confident and strong big brother glance over his shoulder every time he thought Jaime wasn’t looking.
It unnerved him to see Sam that way, but Jaime knew all he could do was make sure Sam knew he could come to him, if he needed.
Jaime parked his car behind Finn’s truck and walked through the front door, a warm golden light pouring out of the cabin windows in the blue dusk. Kicking off his shoes, he saw that Finn wasn’t in his usual spot on the sofa, or in the kitchen.
It had taken a few weeks to settle into a routine together, but after their time at the cabin, neither Jaime or Finn wanted to live apart.
Sometimes Jaime would ride with Finn into Silver Rapids for the day, strolling around town and sitting in the local coffee shop while he drew on his tablet and built up his social media commission platform again. Other days he’d stay at home, enjoying the peaceful quiet of the lake as he cleaned out his art studio, readying it to use again.
He still met with his therapist once a week, and found it easier to work on his exercises now that Bishop was dead and Jeffrey Dugan was in prison. But there were still nights when it felt difficult to breathe; when the walls were too close, and Jaime had to remind himself that he’d escaped.
Finn was always there, with his gentle words and deep voice guiding him back, guiding him home. And then his strong arms and soft lips would remind Jaime that he was loved, and protected, and wanted.
Jaime found Finn out back, sitting on a blanket in the lupine meadow and looking out at the full Flower Moon’s reflection over the lake. His breath caught at the sight, and he hovered by the door to take in the beauty of the moment, listening to the soft hum of insects and the calling loons as the shore lapped gently against the rocky beach.
Quietly, he padded over and sat next to Finn, curling into his side. Peeking up through his lashes, Jaime saw such contentment on Finn’s face that it took his breath away all over again. It was even more beautiful than the moon hanging low over the lupine all around them.
Their troubles hadn’t gone away; Jaime was again on the hook to testify, now at Jeffrey Dugan’s trial for Vera’s murder, and the Salt Creek alpha’s threat was hanging over them all. But none of that belonged in this moment.
“Hi,” Jaime whispered into the peaceful night.
Looking down, a small smile appeared on Finn’s lips. “Hi. How was dinner with Sam?”
Jaime gave him a coy smile in return. “Good. I brought you something.”
Finn’s eyes lit up. “Please tell me it’s the recipe for the Swedish meatballs.”
He grinned, and pulled the scrap of paper out of his jean pocket. “Dinner for tomorrow?”
Finn beamed, looking so happy, so light and open, that Jaime had to kiss him. It quickly turned hot, hands wandering as Jaime ran his tongue along Finn’s canines and their legs tangled together when Finn rolled him onto his back.
But too soon, Finn grasped his shoulders and pulled them both apart so that he could sit back, hovering over where Jaime lay reclined on the blanket. He could see Finn’s face in the glow through the windows and the light of the full moon reflecting off the lake, and noted the nervous downward cast of his eyes.
Placing his hand over Finn’s and sitting back up next to him, he asked, “What’s wrong?”
Finn shook his head. “Nothing’s wrong. Absolutely nothing. I just, um. I was out here with the blanket and everything for a reason, waiting until you got home.”
Jaime cocked his head in question, and Finn cleared his throat. “I wondered. Well, I thought that maybe, since we’ve been, um, working you up to it, I thought tonight we could?—”
“Oh my God, are you finally going to knot me?” The thought made Jaime giddy, and yes, a little nervous, too.
Soon after they’d returned from the safe house, Jaime had received a package at his door in Finn’s name. He hadn’t thought anything of it until Finn snatched it out of his hands to unbox whatever was inside, blushing. And then nervously, with those warm eyes that should be illegal, he’d presented Jaime with his purchases.
Finn had bought him butt plugs.
Plugs, as in several of them. In varying sizes. He’d shuffled on his feet and rubbed the back of his neck as he explained that these would help to stretch Jaime gradually, so the knot wouldn’t hurt or tear him.
Jaime, blushing furiously, was so touched and so horny that he’d shoved Finn backwards onto the sofa, snatched the lube they kept in a drawer downstairs for exactly this reason, and rode him, hard, until they were both shouting their climaxes.
They’d used the plugs nearly every night since—Finn was fastidious in making sure that Jaime was well prepared for the size and stretch of him. And they’d both fucking loved the sight and sensation of Jaime’s hole stretching around them.
Surfacing from the fond memory, he watched as Finn clocked the shift in his scent, eyes darkening as arousal mixed with excitement pooled low in his belly. Still, he didn’t move over Jaime like he expected, instead taking both of his hands in his.
“Yes. If you’re ready, yes. But first…” He squeezed Jaime’s hands, a tremor in his voice. “It was always you, for me. I’ve been yours from the moment we met. I love you. Will you, um, will you be my mate?”
In the purple and blue meadow of blooming lupine, with the full moon behind him, Jaime would remember this moment with Finn forever. His voice choked with tears and overwhelming love as he exclaimed, “Yes! Yes, Finn. You are mine, and I am yours. I love you, I love you, I love you. Please, make me your mate!”
Finn pulled Jaime forward, banding his arms around his middle as he yanked him up into his lap and pressed wet, sloppy kisses to his mouth, along his jaw, behind his ear, and down his neck.
He stopped there, lapping and grazing his teeth where Jaime’s neck met his shoulder. Peering up, he growled, “Hold on.”
Jaime squawked, scrambling for a grip on Finn’s shoulders and wrapping his legs tightly around his waist as he stood, carrying him inside and up to their room. Jaime pouted, “Why did we have to come inside?”
Finn chuckled, tossing him down onto the soft bedding. “Because I don’t want bugs in places they shouldn’t be.”
He’d clearly made an effort to prepare their bedroom for this before Jaime had arrived. The lights were off, but the space was lit in a warm glow from the gas fireplace, still necessary on chilly evenings, along with the soft fairy lights they’d strung up over their bed when Finn had moved in. They both loved the reminder of the good memories they shared together from the safe house.
Jaime giggled, and Finn continued, “Also… we might be, uh, stuck together for awhile, afterwards. I want us to be somewhere we can be comfortable.”
Jaime’s heart warmed. “So thoughtful, baby. Now, fuck me, please.” He reached out with grabby hands and squirmed further into the soft pillows as Finn flashed him a wolfish grin and tugged off his shirt.
“With pleasure. But first…”
He dropped to his knees beside the bed, and yanked Jaime down by an ankle, hastily shucking his pants and underwear off while Jaime fought to get his shirt over his head. He hadn’t quite managed it yet, arms still tangled up, when Finn swallowed his cock in one go.
“Hah—Finn!”
He must have found the lube because suddenly, two slick fingers were massaging over Jaime’s rim, pushing in slowly as Finn suckled and lapped at his tip the way he knew drove Jaime wild.
Feet flexing over Finn’s shoulders, Jaime fisted his hands in his soft hair and began arching up into the wet, sucking pulls before dropping down, hard, onto the now three fingers curling purposefully against his prostate, pleasure pulsing up his spine and down into his thighs with each motion, making his hole clench around Finn’s fingers.
He hiccuped, “Finn… Finn. I’m n-not coming like this. I refuse—refuse. Please come fuck me with your—mmmph!”
Finn’s lips pulled off Jaime’s cock with a wet pop right as he stuffed the largest plug into his hole, holding it steady as Jaime huffed and shifted, adjusting to its girth, before he began gently fucking it in and out.
Finn’s voice was all gravel through teeth. “I wish you could see your pretty pink hole, Jaime. See the way it sucks the biggest plug right back inside—so needy for a fat cock, hmm? But it’s not enough, is it… you need more. You need my fat cock stuffing you full, yeah? My knot? Do you need your mate inside of you?”
Someday, Jaime would ask Finn where all of his filthy talk came from, but right now he just basked in it, head tipping back and arms spread above his head as soft uh, uh, uh’s spilled from him while Finn opened him up. The stretch and pleasure-ache was so delicious as he lay loose and pliant under his ministrations.
“Answer me, baby.” Finn smacked a cheek, exposed as he hefted a leg further up on his shoulder.
Jaime mewled. “Yeah, baby. Please, I need you to fuck me. I want your fat cock. Only yours. Only you. Knot, me, Finn. Please!”
Finn slurped him down once again, Jaime’s cock in his throat as he swallowed once, twice, three times… “Oh, God, Finn! Nu-uh, nooo—I don’t—please, d-don’t make me come too—too—too soon!”
He pulled off right at the last second, and Jaime sobbed from the sudden shove back from the edge while the plug was still pressed against his prostate, begging for more, less, anything…
Finn pulled the plug out, and while Jaime blinked up at the ceiling, stars dancing in his vision, he heard him hastily shuck his clothes off before climbing up and over Jaime, resting with just enough weight to press him down into the mattress, his heavy erection slotting along Jaime’s in a way that was both familiar and new.
Finn, so tall and broad and hairy in this form, hovered over him, a smug look on his face as he rocked his overlarge cock against Jaime’s.
He grasped for a trailing thread in his cotton-candy filled mind and followed it, snuffling as he pouted, “S’mean to do that.”
Finn chuckled. “You’re fucking adorable when I edge you. We should do it more often.”
Jaime shook his head side to side. He did not think that would be very nice, but his head was too fuzzy to say so.
Finn leaned in, tongue and teeth and lips trailing up his neck before he tugged lightly on the shell of Jaime’s ear. “Really, I don’t think I’m going to last for more than a few seconds before I knot you, baby, and I need you close before we start.”
He sounded nervous, and as Jaime finally focused on him, he saw those adoring eyes staring down at him. So he smiled, hands cupping Finn’s face as he lifted up to kiss him. “I’m ready, Finn. I’m so ready. I love you. I want you. Make me your mate.”
Something flashed in Finn’s gaze, no longer soft, and Jaime had the sense that they were both there now, right at the front. Finn and his wolf were looking down at him, together—reverent, hungry, equally enamored and loving.
“How do you want me, Jaime?” His voice was all rumble.
Jaime had given that question quite a bit of consideration in all of his many fantasies about this night. He leaned up to give Finn one more lingering, wet kiss, full of teeth and heat, before he gently pushed him back.
Rolling until he was sitting up on his knees, his back to Finn, Jaime tucked a pillow under his hips for support before he folded forward. Arms stretched above his head, he grasped the pillows and tipped his ass up, arching his back.
Presenting.
The position received the reaction he was looking for. Finn snarled, and Jaime heard something deeper, something that made him shiver and then loosen everywhere, growl, “Mate.”
Clawed hands grasped Jaime’s hips, tipping him up and arching his back even further as a constant, low litany of filthy praise left Finn’s mouth. He shuddered when he felt Finn’s hot, wet breaths on his loose rim before Finn lapped there—once, twice, followed by a scrape of teeth on the meat of Jaime’s ass.
The shock of the cold lube swiped along his rim made him jolt, and Finn placed soothing, open mouthed kisses where he’d just nipped, shushing Jaime as he slicked himself up. “Shh, baby.”
Jaime relaxed when he felt the mattress shift around him, Finn’s knees bracketing him on either side as he leaned down and completely blanketed his large body over Jaime’s. Finn reached up and tangled their fingers together, pressing his face into his hair. His heavy cock rested along Jaime’s lower back, already leaking.
There was more of Finn in his voice as he spoke. “I love you. Tell me to stop if I hurt you.”
Jaime tipped his face to the side and kissed him. “You won’t. Please, I’m so ready.”
But when Finn shifted, and the wide, blunt tip of his cock dragged down from the small of Jaime’s back to snug up against his hole, leaving sticky wet trails of precum along his skin, he had a moment of doubt at just how much there was of Finn like this.
Jaime gasped when he pressed in, and tightened his grip on their linked fingers while Finn whispered that he was such a good boy, telling him to breathe through it, bear down, and Jaime couldn’t think of anything at all except for Finn, and the pressure, right at the edge of burn before his rim gave way and the fat head caught and entered him.
The stretch had his eyes rolling back in pleasure. Jaime keened, trembling.
Finn ground out, “Fuck, look at you, baby. You’re taking me so w-well—well.” He was trembling above Jaime, too—restraint and overwhelm in his voice. Jaime released his hold on Finn’s fingers and gripped his forearms braced on either side of him—needing an anchor as the pleasure consumed him.
He felt himself adjust to Finn’s girth, felt the fat head sink a little further inside as Jaime’s hole relaxed, sucking him in. “M’good… you can move, please move—Ooh!”
Finn rocked his hips into Jaime, cock thick and hard as he grunted and huffed into his hair, going deeper with every careful thrust inside. “Oh fuck, baby. You feel so good. You’re so tight, so perfect. Mine, you’re mine, Jaime. I’m in you, now.”
Finn’s hips fell out of rhythm, like he stopped himself from going further, and his voice broke on a plea. “Jaime, I can’t—hmmph—hold back, anymore?—”
He sounded wrecked, the low timber of his voice pitching high with every measured thrust in. Jaime heard the wolf, too, like he was also there to claim what was his. What was theirs.
Mate.
And Jaime was so ready to be claimed. “Give it to me. More—more. I want—hiccup—want you. Deeper.”
Finn whined in gratitude, lifting up just enough to palm the nape of Jaime’s neck with one clawed hand, and his hip with the other.
“I love you,” he growled.
And then Finn fucked into him hard, bottoming out.
Jaime howled, limbs scrambling for purchase as Finn began pumping into him in deep, brutal strokes. Jaime’s cock, which had flagged during the initial press in, was a steel bar hanging between his legs, his balls tight as he shifted against the pillow from Finn’s pounding. In this position, with his ass up and his back bowed beneath Finn’s anchoring hold, Jaime felt his thrusts moving deeper inside of him than he ever thought possible.
It was euphoric.
Finn seemed to have completely lost himself in the pleasure, a jumble of praise and command tumbling out of his mouth between grunts and hitched breaths. “Take it—take it. That’s right. Yes, my mate. My good boy. Right in your belly. You—you want my cock? My—cum? You want your mate to knot you? Breed you? Stuff you f-full—full?”
Finn was all around him, his entire world, everything he knew—over him and in him and holding him. His words washed over Jaime, and he could feel Finn so deep, he imagined that if he pressed on the soft pouch of his lower belly he would feel Finn moving there.
The thought had him mewling, wanting more, more, more. Finn shifted his hips just enough to hit Jaime’s prostate, over and over and over, and he sobbed in pleasure, his orgasm floating just out of reach. Breaths hitching, he reached back to claw at Finn’s hip, wanting him closer, deeper still.
“Finn—nnngh, please! Please! Please!”
Jaime didn’t know what he was begging for, but Finn did. Finn always knew what he needed—and he always gave it to him.
The hand at Jaime’s nape slid beneath him, wrapping across his chest and the opposite shoulder, angling Jaime’s neck just so. Suddenly, Finn’s teeth were there, hovering over that spot, teasing.
“Say—it. Say you’re m-my mate. Say you want my claim—Jaime.”
Finn’s breath was hot against the sweaty, curling hairs at Jaime’s nape. He felt the bond pulsing deep in his bones, a matching thrum to Finn’s grinding cock against his prostate—something intrinsic within him calling out, needing to claim and be claimed.
Jaime was Finn’s, and Finn was his.
His thrusts punched the words out of Jaime. “I want it. Hiccup. I’m yours—yours—yours. And you’re mine, hmmph, mine. I want—it. Please, Finn. Oh!”
Jaime felt the swelling start, Finn’s cock dragging even more on his withdrawals, catching on Jaime’s rim deliciously as he stuffed him full again. His own erection was aching, the friction against the pillow just on the edge of not enough.
As the pressure from Finn’s knot heightened even more, making Jaime wonder if they could do this—if it would fit—his teeth were in him, biting.
Claiming.
And then Finn’s knot blew wide, Jaime’s eyes rolling back when his rim swallowed and fluttered behind the bulge as the pleasure-pressure on his prostate throbbed up his spine.
Finn released the bite and sobbed, “Oh fuck, baby—baby, look at y-you. At us. You’re so full—full of me. I’m going to b-breed you, now, Jaime!”
He leaned forward again, and gripped Jaime’s hands in his, completely covering him. They came with a euphoric shout, one following just after the other. Jaime shot ropes of cum up the pillow beneath him as Finn anchored him down, making him take it, knot lodged deep as he rocked inside and pumped his cum into Jaime’s belly with a muffled roar, face buried in Jaime’s neck.
Jaime shook and twitched when his orgasm ripped his breath away, pathetic mewls and sobs the only sound coming from him as he squirmed beneath Finn, the movement pressing him further onto his knot.
It was all so much; the pleasure was overwhelming as Finn’s thick cock kicked, spilling in him, his knot and teeth and claim all consuming.
Finn purred above him, his entire body a trembling mess while he continued to rock his hips in aborted motions, plugging Jaime up and filling him. He began lapping at the mating bite, shushing Jaime’s wet, hitched breaths as the aftershocks moved through them both.
Time slipped from Jaime. Finn’s chest rumbled while he hovered over him, still knotted deep inside. It could have been hours, or days, or maybe just a few minutes.
He was floating in that liminal space between consciousness and pleasure-induced black-out, stars dancing behind his eyes and only aware of Finn all around him, when he heard the soft words that would bind them together forever.
“I claim you, Jaime Lamont. In love, honor, and gratitude. You are mine, and I am yours.”
Thick arms banded around his middle, keeping him close as they shifted to the side. Jaime whined at the stretch and pull on his rim, Finn’s knot jostling as they adjusted before settling, spooned together.
He took Finn’s hands again where they were wrapped around him, and with the weight of them on his heart, Jaime repeated the words that ached to be free.
“And I claim you, Finn Winters. In love, and honor, and gratitude. You are mine, and I am yours.”
Whether it was a true physical connection, or some indefinable emotional bond, Jaime didn’t know. But he felt those words wrap around his heart, felt them pull him further into Finn’s embrace. And he swore that he could feel Finn’s joy and wonder echoing his own, swelling along with the purr coming from deep in his chest.
Jaime knew that tug would always remain, a comforting presence connecting him to his love, his mate, forever.
Finn’s knot finally softened, and cum spilled down Jaime’s thighs, making them wet and sticky as he pulled out. He carried Jaime to their bathroom where they bathed together in the hot water, and as Finn fussed over the newly-healed mating marks that he’d left on Jaime’s neck, as they exchanged hushed exclamations of awe and pleasure at the joining they’d just shared, as they pressed soft words of love into each other’s skin—Jaime knew that this was always meant to be.
Whether they met a year ago, or five years from now, or in another lifetime altogether, they would always find their way home to each other.