36. Together
Together
Evangeline
It can’t be true.
Because if it is. Then my whole life has been a lie.
I have parents.
Parents.
A family. People who love me and have waited for me this entire time. There’s a whole side of me I don’t remember, and I’ve been locking them away.
I didn’t kill innocents. I killed monsters.
I saved myself.
For the first time, the voice in my head doesn’t need to speak.
I’m safe in his lap. Sitting on a chair is okay.
Sitting on the floor is better, but sitting on his lap is perfect.
I can’t stop looking at the man in front of me.
My mate. Cas. He’s given me the world, and he doesn’t even realise it.
He gave me back something I didn’t know was missing. He’s made me whole again.
I know I will get through this because of him. Together.
I press my lips against his. Pushing into him and gripping him. My lips fight for something I can’t identify.
His tongue swipes mine, his canines scrape my plump lip. He fists my hair, pulling me, manoeuvring me to do as he wishes.
I whine in his arms.
This is what I was made for.
For him.
He takes and I give.
It’s the power I feel when I take a life, the knowledge that I am in control of my life.
Hands slide over my skin, lips lick and suck at my mating bite. I moan, pushing my chest against the hard lines of his muscles. My nipples scrape along the fabric of my bra, the rough material causing them to pucker.
He rips at my clothes and I tear at his, the entire time my lips stay pressed to his skin. His smokey scent lingers on my tongue.
I need more.
I bury my face in his neck. Sucking at his scent gland. He growls, his body moving under mine, but he forces my head to remain, hands locked in my hair. The cool air whooshes over my bare skin, and I nuzzle deeper into his warmth.
My tongue grazes the raised bumps of his scent gland, and his need surrounds me. I perfume, mixing my spicy scent with his. Together, it’s everything.
He runs his hands down my back and grips my hips. The hold is bruising, desperate. As if he were to hold any lighter and I might disappear. We move together, frantically rocking back and forth. Lining up his hard cock with my wet pussy. His head bumps my clit and I bite down.
“Fuck!” he groans.
My blunt teeth latch onto his neck, holding it hostage to my wants and desires. I haven’t broken skin yet.
I purr, the vibrations shudder through me, and he growls in response. He moves me faster, setting a brutal pace, forcing pleasure through me. It’s building and building inside me.
He lifts me, one hand grabbing a handful of my arse cheek, the other snaking up my back. He grabs my neck from behind, forcing my mouth further into his neck and plunges his cock deep inside me with one merciless thrust.
I bite down. Blood spills into my mouth, metal and tangy but oh so overwhelmingly smoky.
He keeps going, moving me up and down as well as himself up to meet me. Every slap where our bodies crash together sends shivers of pleasure through my clit.
I release his neck with a gasp. Air flowing into my lungs.
But he doesn’t allow us to be separated for long, and slams his lips against mine.
We groan into each other, sharing our breath and our pleasure.
He wraps an arm around my waist, anchoring us together and slides his hand between our bodies.
His fingers graze my clit and my back arches.
Sparks shoot through my body. He rubs firmly and moves in concentric circles.
It leaves me boneless and stiff at the same time.
Slick eases out of me and the sound combined with the noises we are making are obscene.
I can feel him everywhere.
The fullness of his thick cock inside me.
His fingers stroking my clit. The grip of his arm around my waist. The memory of his hand in my hair stinging my scalp.
My throat is coarse from screaming in pleasure and the grip of his fingers around my neck.
My body is littered with bruises, evidence of his need for me and promises of more.
My fingers rake down his back. I want him to feel me everywhere long after we have finished.
“Alpha,” I gasp against his lips.
The pressure builds inside me, threatening to explode.
He keeps pace but thrusts with more power than I knew was possible. My whole body hums. Tingles spread over my limbs and down my spine. His knot nudges at my opening, every bump increasing my pleasure. But he refuses to push it inside.
He rips his lips away from mine.
“I want to cover you in my cum. I want everyone to know that you are mine. Cum for me, Angel. So I can cum for you.” He growls into my ear.
The command is subtle, but it’s enough to tip me over.
I cum. I shudder and gasp, my body moving on its own, rocking into him. Pushing down on him. Taking what I need and accepting nothing less. He doesn’t stop, letting me ride out my pleasure and taking it for himself. His knot pulses hot at my entrance, threatening to push inside.
“Alpha.”
The breathless whisper leaves me, and I collapse into him.
He flips us. Lying me down and leering over me. His eyes are wild. His hair is a mess. My mating bite sits proudly over his scent gland, still weeping blood and smearing it across his throat.
He looks deranged, desperate.
For me.
Mine.
I grin, my chest heaving.
His eyes wander over me. His leaking hard cock in his hand, squeezing his knot. He pumps. Once. Twice. Before he cums over me. He groans, his whole body convulsing as his cum spurts out of his cock. It splashes over me, washing me in his scent.
His fingers push inside me, gathering my slick. His eyes find mine, holding me hostage with his gaze. Without looking away, he places my hand over his and strokes it down his chest, leaving a glistening streak of my cum on him.
My scent clings to him, and his does to me.
“I love you.” We both say at the same time.
I laugh, and he picks me up, bundling me in his arms, holding me close.
* * *
I sit up in the half made nest. Cas’s large top slips down my shoulder. I stare at my mate.
“I have parents.”
“You do.”
It’s all catching up with me now. The enormity of it. I have parents. The Council was wrong. I didn’t kill them. I saved myself. I was never broken.
Will they like me? Who I am, not who they grieved?
“I already have August.”
Cassius sits up and pulls me to his side. His hand cups my cheek, positioning me so that I look at him. His face is soft, open, and honest.
“You can have him too. Having your parents back in your life doesn’t mean that everything you went through gets erased. It doesn’t mean Alpha August didn’t raise you.”
Right. He’s right.
I’m not replacing him by wanting to know who I am, who I came from, who I was going to be.
Cas tugs the blanket around me, covering me until only my head is showing. He pulls another layer on top. It’s heavy. Pinning me down.
“What is that?”
“A weighted blanket.”
The pressure is nice. My heart calms and my breathing settles.
“It’s nice.” I sigh.
“It will also keep you where I put you,” he teases.
I settle into his side.
How did I get here? With a mate, a father, and now parents that have apparently always wanted me. A year ago, I was someone else entirely. I now have friends and a family.
“I think I want Auggie with me when I meet them.”
“Done.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew before I did. He has arranged all of this for me. I don’t have to worry that Auggie won’t want to be there. He has been the one constant in my life since he came into it. I never have to worry about him not being there.
He gave me a family, small, only the two of us, but it was more than I was willing to accept after everything. He never pushed me to be different, never judged me for being myself. He was exactly what I needed every step of the way.
“Cas?”
“Yes, Angel?”
I swallow roughly.
Can I ask this of an Alpha? Is this something I should have known before we mated?
“Do you want a family, children, someday?”
“Yes,” he says without hesitation.
My heart leaps into my throat.
“I think I want to do what August did for me?”
The seconds tick by and time slows to a stop.
“You want to adopt?”
He doesn’t sound angry, curious, maybe.
“Are you okay with that?” I ask, turning to face him despite my limited movements. “I know they wouldn’t be ours biolo—”
He grabs my face in his hands, peppering kisses along my cheeks and at the corner of my mouth. He beams back at me.
“They would be ours in every way that matters. But I have to tell you, you just moved up the timeline for kids by nine months.”
I laugh. I shouldn’t have been worried. He is perfect for me in every way. My scent match, my mate.
“I’m serious. You’re telling me I could be a dad tomorrow.”
His energy is contagious. I can see him holding a baby or playing with a child. He was made to be a mate and a father.
“Well, not tomorrow. They probably have things they need to check and protocols to follow.”
But soon. I can’t say it out loud. I want a family, almost as badly as he does. But I do want to spend time as just the two of us first.
“Since when have I cared about the law?”
He wiggles his eyebrows and gives me a smile. I love that I get to see this playful side of him no one else gets.