Chapter Together 🌶️
Ruby
Every other thought is driven out of my head. I think something was happening, maybe, there were people, but nothing else matters now. This overwhelming sense of belonging with this man, belonging to him, him belonging to me, rushes over me like a tidal wave and I can’t pay attention to one single other thing.
“Mate!” we say to each other, then his arms are around me, and his mouth is on mine, and I want to touch him everywhere, and I feel his fingers on me too. His ass feels so fine under my hands, and when he squeezes my breast I gasp and bite his lip a little.
He must have maintained some ability to recognize where we are, because he starts leading me away, maybe he wants to get me alone, and that is exactly what I want too. Although honestly if he had flung me onto that big table in the middle of the room that I got a glance of before I saw him, I would have happily accepted him right there.
He leads me to a stairway, then down a hall, and it takes us longer to get wherever we are going than it would if we didn’t keep grabbing each other and crashing into the wall to grind our pelvises and chase our tongues around.
Finally we’re in a bedroom, and I know it has to be where he lives, because his delicious scent is so thick in here. It has finally dawned on me that it wasn’t just food being cooked, or cleaner being used. That’s him, the yummy pine needles and bacon scent is coming from him, and I want to lick it off of him, I want to devour him, I want -
“Ruby,” he gasps as he slams the door shut then slams me up against it, starting to nibble his way down my throat while I start reaching for his pants.
“Yeah,” I moan breathlessly, “who are you?”
“What?” He doesn’t know what I mean for a second, then he must realize that I don’t know his name yet. I figure since he obviously works here, he knows the names of all the rogues that were captured. “Oh, uh, I’m Theo,” he says, then renews his assault on me.
Me first, though. “Theo,” I repeat, tasting his name like I am about to taste the rest of him. I push him away, and he crashes down onto the side of the bed, and he’s still bouncing when I’m on him, opening his zipper, grabbing into his boxers, and pulling his thick, erect dick out into my hand.
Oh my god I have never seen anything more delectable. “Your dick is beautiful,” I gasp, and that is the last time I intend to use my mouth for forming words, because I’m kneeling in front of him, licking across the tip, then letting my teeth scrape just a little as I pull him in, and he is helplessly laughing and gasping and moaning.
The rogue males used to like this, but I never did, not until this moment, when I hear Theo’s ecstatic groaning while I take him. The sweet sound just inflames me and I am in a frenzy as I try to swallow him whole.
Before I can finish him off, he has pulled out and is yanking my clothes off, and I am yanking his. I catch only a glimpse of his glorious dark skin covering his lean muscles before he is on me, everywhere, his hands and mouth and dick and teeth are on me and in me.
I think I hear things breaking as we violently and passionately wrestle together, and I don’t care, and neither does he, and we fuck and suck and kiss and mark, and entirely lose ourselves in the process.
And that is all before our wolves even come out.
Corinne
It is so sweet, the way that Evan holds my hand, or touches my arm, or guides me with his hand flat against the small of my back.
I love being together. I revel in his touch, not forgetting that last time I was here at the packhouse, the morning that I left, he couldn’t touch me, because we were being so scrupulously careful to protect my scent. I couldn’t even stand next to him, for fear that Xavier would be able to smell the pack on me.
But now that no longer matters. So much that we prepared for has already happened, and it is hard to adjust to the fact that it all worked. It’s done. I accomplished my purpose.
So now what? I have no idea what happens next. I have to make plans for my baby, but all I can think about right now is Evan. I missed him while I was away, and it is hard to adjust to the reality that it was only for a couple of days. It felt like forever.
I had tried to push him into the back of my mind, but it was never successful. I kept seeing his blue eyes, his blond hair, his earnest expression. I kept missing his scent, longing to have his sweatshirt again so I could smell him once more.
And now, I have it. After the Alpha dismisses us, Amelia takes Lynette and Nova downstairs to show them into one of the rooms like I had, but Evan takes me upstairs to his room. As soon as we get inside, he takes off the sweatshirt that he’s been wearing and hands it to me. “I wore it for you, like you asked,” he says while I take it and clutch it to my chest. He looks down at his feet. “I could smell you, it’s what kept me going.”
I inhale deeply, then draw it on over my head and put my arms through the sleeves, still feeling the warmth of his body on the cloth, and inhaling the scent of him enveloping me. It is like he is holding me.
And then he is. He pulls me into his arms, tenderly, and presses my cheek against his chest, and one of his hands stays on my head, stroking my hair, as I snake my arms around his waist. We stay this way, silently, for at least a couple of minutes, and I feel all of the tension that I have been carrying draining away.
It is extraordinary. I am flooded with a sense of peace, and security, and love. And accomplishment. Whatever happens next, I did my job.
He finally lets go of me. “We have a while before dinner,” he says, “if you want to use the bathroom or whatever.”
I glance over to the bathroom door. “Um, yes, I would.” I wonder if I could borrow some clothes from him after I shower. I’m wearing the outfit that I put on at the homeless shelter the morning I was there, and I’ve been in the cave since then, and I just have the sudden urge to get rid of any trace of that experience.
“Why don’t I run downstairs to your old room and see if there’s any clothes left in there for you,” he suggests, “while you’re in the shower?” It seems like he can almost read my mind.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
Evan
She’s here in my room, and she looks up at me with her clear gray eyes, and I feel so complete with her here. While she goes to take a shower I jog down the stairs to the basement, and it occurs to me that Amelia would know if there are spare clothes for Corinne, and I move down the hallway towards her door.
But then I hear them through the door, moaning and gasping together, and it makes me blush to eavesdrop like this. Dom and Amelia are mates, and they have been holding back, putting it off, working hard to do everything that Corinne needs for her rescue mission, and they deserve a little private time together.
Especially after watching Theo and the rogue. I had seen Alpha Kanen find Luna Janine, but none of us had even noticed Dom and Amelia until days later when they finally marked each other. Theo was about ready to start openly rutting on the floor, it was obvious, before they staggered away together, and that makes me realize more than anything else how powerful the mating urge is.
I’ll leave them alone.
I move to where Corinne’s room was, and the door opens easily from this side. I move over to the dresser, and find some garments in the drawers there. I don’t know what Corinne will want so I just scoop everything up together into my arms and carry it all back upstairs for her.
I lay it down on the other bed, the one that Dom had been using. Not using much, he never actually spent a night here before he moved in with Amelia downstairs.
Corinne finishes her shower and comes out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her head, wearing one of the plush bathrobes River Moon stocks the bathrooms with. I gesture over to the bed, where all the clothes are laid out, and she glances there, then at me. “Thank you,” she says very warmly to me. Then she selects a few items and brings them back into the bathroom with her.
When she comes out, she is wearing my sweatshirt and a pair of sweatpants, and her long dark hair hangs down her back, wet and smelling like my shampoo. I can’t resist going to her, running my hands over her hair, and giving her a brief kiss. She is delicious under my mouth, but I don’t want to press her. I know she’s been traumatized, and probably needs her space. I will give her all the time and room she needs.
I break off the kiss after a minute, caress her cheek with my thumb, and ask, “Hungry? Want to go down for dinner?”
She nods, looking up at me, but before we go, she takes my hand which is still against her face, holds my fingers in her hand, and presses her lips to them. My heart surges.
Dom and Amelia are in the cafeteria, looking flushed and happy, but I’m certainly not going to admit that I overheard what they were doing downstairs. They are showing Nova and Lynette how to get a tray and go through the buffet line, and the girls are clearly astonished and a bit unsettled by the huge and generous variety of food available. Amelia encourages them to take more than the few bits that they started with.
Soon we are all gathered together at the little table in the back where we have been in the habit of dining together, with the next table pushed over to make more room for us all.
We talk with Dom and Amelia mostly, comparing notes about what happened over the last few days, while the other girls watch mostly silently. This has got to be so weird for them, but I’m sure that they’ll adjust just like Corinne has.
After dinner, some of the other young folks start heading towards the t.v. room to watch a movie, and Amelia asks Lynette and Nova if they’re tired, or if they’d like to see a movie.
“A movie?” Nova asks, her mouth hanging open like she’s never heard of such a thing.
Lynette smiles. “Let’s do it, kid, it’ll be fun.”
Corinne holds Nova’s hand while we head out of the cafeteria, and soon everybody is curled up together on couches and cushions on the floor, and we watch a cute Disney film, figuring that’d be about right for someone who looks as young as Nova.
I know that decisions still need to be made, but for tonight, it feels so sweet to rest with Corinne curled up against me, paying very little attention to the movie, but just appreciating that she is here, and safe, and seems to be happy to be with me.
When it’s over, Nova is yawning wide but also seems very exhilarated at the happy ending of the movie, and everyone heads off to bed. Corinne takes my hand and comes upstairs with me without hesitation, and when we get in my room I indicate the second bed. “You can have that bed, if you like, or….”
She looks at the bed, then back at me. “Can I sleep together with you?” she asks quietly, and I nod, relieved.
I don’t plan to ask anything of her, I want to let her adjust to things on her own time. But after we have climbed into bed, and she cuddles up in my arms, rather than lying quietly and sleeping, she tentatively kisses me, and I let her guide each step, never pushing her, but always adapting to everything she seems to want.
And she wants it all. She is everything I have been dreaming about, and I know that I will remain devoted to her forever.
After, she actually whispers to me, “Thank you.”
“You’re thanking me?” I ask, very surprised. “You’re the one who gave me an incredible gift.” I have never felt this way before. It has never been like that before for me.
“I needed to know what it is like with you, Evan,” she says seriously. “Thank you for being so kind, and wonderful, and caring.”
I get a flash of worry that she is saying goodbye. But she says, “I know now that this is what I want. You are what I want.”
“Then never leave me,” I whisper. “I know I will never leave you.”
We fall asleep holding each other.