ALEX #2
He snorts. "Absolutely! You looked ridiculously sexy, those thin black lines like someone had sketched them with charcoal, and the grayish-pearl skin. It was incredible, unusual." He sounds sincere, eyes drilling into mine.
Bay’s hand slowly wraps around my wrist, and with a gentle but firm motion, he begins to pull me toward the center of the table.
For a moment I don’t understand what he’s doing, but something in his energy makes my heart race.
Bay keeps pulling me closer…
As a result, I end up on the table, chest pressed down, my ass sticking up at the edge.
Bay’s hand holds me there, almost pinned, and my heart soars, and suddenly… he’s behind me, leaning close, his breath hot on my ear, and I feel hardness pressing into my ass.
"Change for me, Alex, change for me," he whispers, his lips gliding along my neck, teasing, hot, wet.
I smile darkly. With a quick move that probably surprises him, I slip free and straighten up.
"Then hunt me, Bay! Necromancer, lich, revenant, whatever you want to call it, find me, find me like only you can," I whisper, squinting my eyes.
Bay straightens too with the instinctive poise of a predator, a dark hunger flickering across his face, the kind a hunter has when he finally sights his game.
"You have to hunt your prey, Messenger of Fate. Track down the abomination! Isn’t that what angels do?" I murmur teasingly as I step back, my feet finding my sneakers quickly.
Then I spin, open the door, and run outside. I bolt off the driveway, racing toward the edge of the campus park.
I don’t know what came over me, but it definitely needs to be released.
Looking around, I rush into the grove. I spot some students walking along the path; from a distance, they seem absorbed in conversation. Maybe… I’d look weird in my normal form, lightly dressed, running across campus like a madman. After all, I teach here.
Or maybe… why not try? I focus, digging into my energy, examining its edges, and suddenly it answers. In a single heartbeat I summon my revenant persona.
A cold shiver crawls over my skin as I look at my hands and twist them at the wrists, watching black lines surge across my palms, spreading outward like ink bleeding through paper, that grayness creeping in as my veins darken to a charcoal shade, smudged yet somehow disturbingly precise, if that even makes sense.
I pass by the students, locking my gaze on them. They freeze for a moment, then break into smiles. Maybe they think I’m heading to some costume event, but my appearance still impresses them. They step aside, even if just for fun.
I leave the park grove and head toward the forest stretching beyond campus boundaries.
This is where I sometimes met with my stalker. I know it well.
I push deeper into the woods, wading through bushes and undergrowth, leaves falling on me, hair wild and messy. I’m only wearing a thin T-shirt and shorts, so branches whip against me, but I don’t care. I finally reach a clearing I know, a small glade where I collapse onto the grass.
Crazy, really, what am I doing?
I look at my hands for a moment, study them, feel them. Then I wonder if my power works only on people. I lean down, press my hand to the grass, slowly draw energy as I did from living bodies. I lift my hand and see a black stain on the grass. I stare at it, fascinated.
Yes, I’m an abomination masked as a tiny omega. No matter how you look at it, my gift didn’t disappear after the Joining, after our souls merged. I’m something strange, unsettling, maybe something that should be stopped… caught, hunted.
Staked?
Then I hear it behind me, a flapping and a powerful gust of wind.
Grass, dry leaves, and small twigs spring up and swirl, some of them showering down on me. I spin around and there’s Bay standing in the center of the glade, his wings spread, glimmering in the morning light like feathers coated in a thin layer of diamond.
He looks magnificent.
"You won’t stop me, oh Messenger of Fate, oh mighty angel. Your divine powers don’t work on my revenant energy," I shout, getting into character. "Hopefully!" I add teasingly.
Bay’s face twists with barely contained amusement.
"And what are you, a forsaken revenant? Or the cutest, most adorable omega to ever walk the earth? Or perhaps a monstrous vampire, a lich capable of draining energy from the living?"
I burst out laughing, breaking character a little.
"Probably all of these. Will you take on the challenge of staking me with your ashwood stake?"
"Your cuteness leaves me no choice. Get ready to be staked."
With one leap, he’s on me, lifting me into the air on his outstretched arms. He does it with such ease, it takes my breath away.
"Ummm. Sexy. So you really can take that form at will?" His hot breath brushes my face, when he looks me over from the left and the right, with genuine admiration.
"Your eyes are luminous, like glowing purple crystals. They gleam with magic!"
For a moment we just hold each other’s gaze, our breaths mingling, then he lowers me a bit and brushes my lips, gently, as if forgetting how terrifying an abomination I am.
My fingers twist into his hair, I caress his hot skin, I can’t get enough, never again gloves! I lean back, pulling him with me, and we slowly fall onto the grass.
Bay hovers over me, his wide wings seeming both light and powerful, shining almost blindingly.
I tear at my shorts as fast as I can and spread my legs wide in a hungry, shameless motion.
Bay stays silent for a moment, looking down at my rigid cock, one brow slightly raised, then suddenly says,
"Everything’s possible. It’s all real. This actually happened."
I see his face close up, beautiful, glowing in the morning light.
His eyes, when he’s this close, are a very dark green, but right at the pupil there’s a dark purple ring, so deep it’s hard to notice at first glance.
His gaze is slightly hazy, full of awe and disbelief.
I start to realize that Bay is only now grasping the reality of us finding each other again, that our path, so brutally split, has reunited.
I feel him pressing into me, searching for access inside my body. "You’re really mine…" he whispers. "I lost hope, and now all this… I’ve regained it all again."
He lifts his hand, brushing it over my cheek, then adds softly, at the same time sliding deeper into me, "Show me the real Alex. I want to see your face, the face I’ve dreamed of all these years, the only one, my fated mate."
I focus and shed my revenant persona; once again I’m just Alex Strada, or Nolan, or Lowen, whatever someone prefers.
Bay smiles radiantly; I think I see moisture in his eyes.
"This is how I dreamed of you for a thousand nights in that abyss that separated us. Day after day I dreamed of you, Alex, of these moments…" he whispers, swaying into me, our breaths intertwining, lips lightly brushing.
"This is no longer a dream. Make love to me, today, tomorrow, the day after. I want everything back exactly like it was between us."
"I will, every day, as many times as you want…" he mumbles, his breath hoarse and uneven, his face flushed. Then, I unexpectedly reach my peak, way too fast, but that’s how it works between True Mates.
Suddenly, I hear his quiet, breathless whisper by my ear, "Ten years? Is it possible? Sometimes you just can’t get everything back…" His hips press harder against me, and I can feel him pulsing inside.
"And sometimes you can, and that will be the case for us," I moan out, coming again, in ecstasy that binds us together.
◆◆◆
The next few days are exactly what I hoped for, everyday life built slowly together, and we’re slipping into its rhythm smoothly.
Of course Bay finds my nest as soon as we get back from the woods.
He stops next to it and stares at it for a moment, then turns toward me with a subtle smile.
He even gives me a little wink. And I blush like crazy.
In ABO society, talking about nests is wrapped in heavy taboo, but between partners it’s somewhat allowed.
Bay understands my shyness without me saying a word. He reaches out, and our fingers intertwine. We stand there for a moment, looking at my creation.
Then we just move on with our day as if it’s the most normal thing in the world.
But I already have plans for how to expand my nest!
Then I sit down at my laptop to get back to work.
I’m getting ready to defend my PhD, and Bay is planning a new music video, so Malik stops by our place often. I don’t feel even a hint of jealousy. I know he’s a good and loyal friend who supported Bay’s career when I couldn’t be there. What I feel is gratitude, because he did a damn good job.
What’s interesting is that neither Bay nor I expect immediate miracles.
We’re taking our time, getting used to each other again, finding our way through the small differences of daily life.
I discover, for example, that Bay’s culinary tastes have changed a little, and so have mine.
But what matters is that they don’t clash at all.
We just find ways to let them complement each other.
Same with our sleep habits. Bay is a night owl, sometimes staying up late writing songs or talking on the phone with Eric or his producer, while I have to wake up early for classes, so I go to bed much earlier.
At first I worry it might mess up our routines and make us miss each other, but it turns out it’s not a problem.
Bay is flexible and respects the fact that I need sleep, so anything loud, like rehearsals or composing, he schedules for times when I’m awake.
What surprises me is how smoothly everything goes when we discuss these adjustments.
Maybe it’s True Mate magic, maybe something else.
I have no idea how it works for others, but for us it creates this strange ease in communication and a complete lack of inner resistance, even when something comes up that requires change from either of us.