‘Mate. Mate. Rutt. Mate.’
He wanted it. Wanted it rough. Wanted it soft and slow. He didn’t care, he justwantedit, immediately. “Fuck me,” he snarled, the pressure in his spine verging on unbearable. “Please. Alpha, please,” the demands turning to pleads.
Lucas growled, his teeth bruising Oliver’s neck as he flipped him over, pulling his hips up and spreading his knees, exposing him completely. Oliver ground his arse back against the alpha’s cock, mewling as the hard line pressed against his wet hole. He needed release, needed to be claimed,needed, needed, neededuntil there was onlyneedleft.
“Bite me,” He whimpered. “Please Lucas, give me the bite.”
Lucas groaned, pressing his cheek against Oliver’s shoulder blades. “You said you wanted a clear head,” he said, brows furrowed as his lips curled back over his fangs.
“My head—has never—been clearer.” Oliver panted, twisting in the alpha’s grip until he was facing him again.
He was restless.Agitatedto such a degree that he couldn’t ground himself in the moment. But that, in itself, told him everything he needed to know. He needed an anchor. Someone to hold his injured heart and battered body with all thetenderness he struggled to find in himself. He needed someone who would love him just the way he was. He needed his mate. His alpha. He needed Lucas.
Lucas stared down at him, eyes softening as he splayed a hand across Oliver’s stomach, stilling the frantic writing of his body. “It’s alright,” he whispered, pressing a string of featherlight kisses to his sweaty forehead. “It’s okay, I’m here, I’m here, I’m here.” A few breaths passed, then, “I have never hidden my feelings, Reed. So if there is any doubt in your heart, you must tell me. If I give you the bite, there’s no going back for me.”
The world dimmed in Oliver’s periphery, despite the daylight pouring into the room.I’m here, I’m here, I’m here.The words echoed in his brain, calming his racing heart and frayed nerves. His body felt free as the final link from the agony of his past fell away.
“I love you,” Oliver said, quiet at first, as though the words were just a thought. But then he said them louder, and louder still, until he was practically screaming them against Lucas’ neck. Tears streamed down his cheeks as the alpha held him, the weight of his body an anchor in itself. “I trust you,” he finally said, hands shaking as they gripped Lucas’ shoulders. “I trustyou.”
The expression that melted across Lucas’ face was enough to break and mend his heart a thousand times. It was the look of a blind man, seeing colour for the first time, or a parent holding their newborn child. Relief mixed with surprise, mixed with overwhelming happiness. Then Lucas rocked forward, burying himself deep inside Oliver’s body as the need to claim and be claimed overcame them both. They shuddered, and Oliver clung to Lucas with his head tipped back in an utterly vulnerable display of submission.
‘Claim. Mine. Yours,’the wolf inside him howled, as Lucas closed his jaws around his throat.
Electric pain spasmed through his body as the sharp shock of teeth on flesh made his back lift and toes curl against the wooden floor. He cried out as Lucas clamped both arms around his writhing body, holding him, and holding him, andholdinghim, until the initial sting of broken skin tempered to a throbbing ache.
The alpha’s hips started moving, staccatoing back and forth with such force that Oliver was shoved across the floor. It was a rut. A true, feral, alpha rut that he had only glimpsed during the heat. Lucas had been holding back, and that in itself was terrifyingandexhilarating, and his body shook with excitement.
Growling, he gripped Lucas’ shoulders, fingernails leaving marks across his skin as he planted the balls of his feet firmly on the floor. A counterweight to the hips pistoning against him, and the bite holding him down. Their moans descended into feral grunts and snarls as Oliver spread his knees, opening his body completely to let Lucas take and bruise and fuck every inch of him.
Stars flashed across his vision as the alpha’s knot pressed against his entrance,waiting, waiting, waitingto be let in. Then Lucas dropped his shoulder and gripped the back of Oliver’s head, shoving his face—his fangs—into his own neck.
“Y-You—” Oliver panted, clinging to the alpha for dear life.
Before he could finish the thought, his mouth opened of its own accord and gnashed across Lucas’ skin. His fangs breached the flesh as a rush of hot, metallic blood spilled over his tongue. Then they were both shuddering uncontrollably as the alpha’s knot breached his entrance, sending them both crying into orgasm.
Oliver let out a strangled sound, the noise muffled by the alpha’s skin between his teeth. Lucas only bit down harder,solidifying the bond into something that went beyond the depth of his flesh.
It was done. The bond was made. Their claim on one another for all to see.
When Oliver finally awoke,he was no longer on the floor, but tucked in-between the incredibly creased sheets of the Californian king-sized bed. The sun was gone, the curtains drawn, and the intense disorientation he felt upon waking indicated he had been in a deep sleep for several hours. A heavy weight pressed on his abdomen, and as he lifted the blanket he realised with a small smile that it was Lucas’ sleeping head.
“Hey,” he whispered, gently running his fingers through the alpha’s hair. He could just about see the lines of his face in the dim light.
Lucas was an annoyingly handsome bastard, with his dark lashes and full lips. Even as he snoozed with his mouth open and drool pooling into Oliver’s navel, an artist could have sculpted that face.
Swallowing the dryness in his throat, Oliver reached over to the bedside table and tapped his phone. It was nine thirty in the evening—they’d really been asleep that long? In fact, he had no recollection of even falling asleep. Or moving to the bed. Or picking up the lamp that had gone flying. What he did recollect, however, was the reason behind the almighty sodding ache in his arse and the throbbing bite mark on his neck.
Lifting the sheet again, he carefully brushed Lucas’ hair aside and saw his own teeth marks imprinted on the alpha’s skin—jagged, bloody and a true testament of just how hard he had been holding on.
The mark on Matteus’ throat was a neat little circle—visible, but not messy or rough. As though the bite had been administered with the utmost care and patience. He supposed the bite reflected the person giving it, and Oliverwasrough, and messy, and…abrasive. And he suddenly felt very grateful that Matteus had chosen Julian to be his mate.
Lucas shifted under the covers, absentmindedly pressing his mouth to Oliver’s stomach. Something about the small gesture made his heart hurt, and he closed his eyes as he struggled to shut down the long-standing thoughts of infertility and self-loathing. It wasn’t Lucas’ fault, he was an alpha—predisposed to procreate. But still, the feelings were there.
“Hey,” Lucas said, kissing Oliver’s sternum as his mouth worked its way back to the mating mark. He kissed and sucked it, sending a tremor of pleasure coursing through Oliver’s body.
“Stop that,” he chuckled, slapping the alpha’s arse under covers. Followed by, “How did we get back into bed?”
Lucas glanced at the door, suddenly looking rather guilty. “We… may have scarred the maid for life.”
