I looked back at this man… my fated mate. Chest heaving, his long brown hair hair was thrown back over one shoulder as he stood there challenging me.

River’s chocolate brown eyes were surrounded by a golden glow, bringing to mind a double-eclipse. Despite his family’s legacy gifts supposedly having died off, his eyes still held an almost unworldly yellow glow—the color was irrelevant, but that glow? That only came from being a blood legacy descendent of the shamans.

“You’re taking too long, Mark. It was a simple question, are we doing this here or taking it elsewhere?”

I stared into those fascinating eyes for just a moment longer, then pushed him back a step. The scent of hibiscus and vanilla wafting off him was clouding my mind and making it hard to think. And combining that with the lusty arousal that he was projecting? Ayup, it was time for us to move to a more private place…

Wordlessly, I grabbed his hand and pulled him down the hall. I figured we’d make our goodbyes and make a quick get away, it wasn’t like any of our friends wouldn’t understand.

“Aye, ta be sure and don’t it look like ya two are lookin’ ta be somewhere else. Were ya at least plannin’ to say goodbye?”

The tiny alpha and proprietor of this particular tavern stood at the end of the hallway. Arms crossed over his muscular chest, our friend Sean projected a larger than life image that was firmly at odds with his petite size. He smirked at us knowingly, then reached into his pocket and pulled out some keys.

I caught the keyring without thinking when he tossed them into the air, my brain still too addled by River to function properly enough to converse. River, of course, didn’t have that problem.

“What’s with the keys, Sean?” River asked.

“Well now, isn’t there a perfectly good flat at the top of the stairs?” Sean grinned as he tipped his chin toward the staircase just off the hallway entrance.

“Sure, and didn’t I live there meself until I met me Heath? Now it’s sittin’ there unused except fer when a mate needs a place to squat. From tae pheromones blastin’ outta this hallway, I’m thinkin’ ya guys don’t need ta be driving. Go on now—get up them stairs and make yerselves at home fer as long as ya need ta stay.”

I saw a rare flash of River’s dimple as he gave Sean his most charming smile. “You, my friend, are an angel. Please give everyone our goodbyes? Just in case I don’t let Mark out of your flat for a few days, if you know what I mean.”

Sean laughed at River’s accompanying eyebrow waggle at that last statement. Trying not to clench my jaw, I nodded a curt thank you to Sean and practically shoved River toward the stairs. Sean backed away cackling, while River huffed and shot me a glare.

Somehow or other we made our way up the stairs without mowing each other over or getting into a fight, not that I was holding my breath that this truce would last.

River got to the top first, pausing on the landing in front of the single door. He looked back at me with an arched brow as I dug in my pocket for the keys Sean had given me.

“Seriously? Are you really so buttoned up that you had to put the keys away for that long trip up here?”

I ignored his teasing, instead forcing myself to take a calming breath while I stuck the key that had clearly been labeled with the word FLAT into the lock. Once I got the door unlocked, I pushed it open and stepped back for him to go in first.

River gave me a long look, then entered the small, almost spartan space. He took a few steps in and stood there looking around the room, before turning his attention back to me.

“What’s next on our agenda, alpha? Is this where you’re going to want to have a long talk about feelings and make sure you have my consent before you claim me? Because I’m more than willing to clear that up right here now—you have my consent if you can earn your way into my hole. I’m not a sweet little omega who’s just going to roll over and present myself. No, sorry, that’s not me. If you want to knot me? You’re going to have to work for it.”

After closing and locking the door with the quiet snick, I turned my attention to the man standing there looking at me with a taunting grin. With two steps, I closed the distance between us. Grabbing him by the hips, I pulled River up against me.

“I don’t have to prove myself or earn the right to be your alpha, and I’m pretty sure that I was disabused of any notion of you bein’ a sweet little omega within five minutes of making your acquaintance. No, I don’t need you to present yourself to me—your ass is mine and we both know it.”

The yellow ring around River’s eyes glowed stronger as he closed the distance between our lips and mashed his against mine for a savage kiss. His hands gripped my elbows, as he tried to push me back against the door, but I reached up and grabbed his biceps and I pushed him backward instead.

River’s kiss was hungry. He nipped at my lips, almost drawing blood before sliding his tongue into my mouth to press eagerly against mine. I growled low in my throat, my wolf close to the surface now as River and I bounced off the walls, banged into a table, and almost toppled a bookcase while we grappled with each other as we made our way across the room.

I broke the kiss when my back slammed into the edge of the doorway. Panting, I ran my tongue over a swollen, bleeding spot on my lip where he’d bitten me.

With a low growl, I shoved River away… just long enough to jerk my shirt over my head and toss it to the floor. When he saw me kicking off my shoes and reaching to unfasten my jeans, a slow grin spread across his chiseled jaw as he began to do the same.

When the last of our clothing had been removed, I backed into the bedroom and crooked a finger at River to join me. He came at me in a rush, shoving me toward the bed and pushing me down on it before moving to straddle my hips with a low growl.

Running my hands up his bare torso, I spanned my fingers across his chest, flicking my thumbnails over his taught nipples. The smell of his slick filled the air, and his dick was flushed an angry red. Reaching down, I wrapped my fist around both our lengths and began to stroke. I looked at his lovely face and winked.

“Bein’ on top don’t put you in charge, snowflake. I can lie underneath you and still maintain control,” I punctuated my words by tightening my fist where I rubbed us together. With my free hand, I reached up and grabbed the back of his neck, pulling River down for another rough kiss.

River braced his hands on my shoulders, pinning me down to show me just how much I wasn’t in control—until I neatly flipped him over onto his back, caging him beneath me without breaking our kiss or missing a stroke where my hand still worked us together.

Both of us were leaking pre-cum, which I rubbed down our shafts with each stroke to ease things along.

Arching up into me, River made it clear that he was an equal partner in our mating dance. Even as my brain noted his cut abs, tightly muscled legs, and the coarse fuzz at his groin—my hand never stopped moving.

When River’s teeth scraped the broken spot on my lip, I pulled back with a groan.

“You weren’t lyin’ when you said I’d have to work for this, were you?”

Eyes flashing, River shook his head. “If you want to be my alpha… You have to earn it.”

“Ayup. I’m good with that. I never did like to just be given anything anyway—something worth havin’ should be earned.” I grinned.

“My thoughts exactly,” River snarled as he hooked his leg around mine and pushed on my shoulders to flip me back over onto my back. My shoulders burned where his fingernails dug in, telling me I’d be wearing battle scars from this tussle.

Releasing my hold on our shafts, I reached around and grabbed his ass instead, moving both hands to palm his cheeks. River reacted by stretching out over me more and grinding his erection into mine.

“It’s cute that you think I needed your fist to find the friction I’d need to pull me over the edge,” River rasped as he lunged toward my neck to nuzzle into my alpha gland.

He growled low in his throat as he scraped his sharp teeth along that sensitive flesh, silently showing me where he intended to mark me later.

Seizing control, I flipped his strong body back over and held him down with my weight as I slotted myself between the corded thighs that fell open for me in invitation.

I ran my hands down the back of his legs, gripping behind his thighs and pushing them toward his chest as I lined the head of my cock up with his leaking hole.

“Who’s in control now, snowflake?” I said with a growl. “One thrust and I’ll be baskin’ in the heat of your silken channel.”

River snorted. “I find it adorable that even now you think you’re in control.” With that, he thrust his hips forward and smoothly impaled himself with my cock.

Forgetting my sore lip, I bit down on it with a moan as I sank into his tight heat. River licked his thumb and ran the pad of it over my lip, before holding it up to show me the drop of blood he’d wiped clean.

My wolf liked what he’d done, and I had to force the bastard back to maintain control. I gulped when I saw him lick it off, but he just shrugged.

“It’s not like I’m not about to taste your blood when I bite into your flesh and stake my claim, right?” He wiggled against me, where I’d stilled to watch him. “Speaking of claiming, are you planning to just park in my ass all night, or were you actually going to fuck me at some point?”

“Demandin’, aren’t we?” I smiled into his eyes as I pulled out almost all the way, before slamming back in firmly. “I take it you don’t want slow and sensual? It’s hard and fast that’s on the menu for tonight?”

“Now you’re getting with the program. We’ll just save the soft and sweet lovemaking for a time when you haven’t left me with blue balls for months on end,” River said as he scraped his fingernails down my back, gouging into my flesh until he had a firm grip on my ass.

Clamping his hands around my tightly muscled cheeks, River rocked his hips forward to meet me thrust for thrust. My back burned where the air and sweat leached into the open scratches he’d dug into flesh… but just past that pain was a strange sense of pleasure.

My heart raced and I broke out into a deeper sweat, dripping onto his chest as I slammed in and out of his tight channel. I dipped down to take his lips for another kiss, our teeth clacking together as our tongues vied for domination.

Aside from the sounds of slapping flesh, the only noise in the room was River’s snarls and my answering growls. Judging by the way it grew just little bit harder every time River fought back against me, I had to assume that my cock liked having to work for this claiming.

As frissions of electricity began to dance along my spine, and my balls began to tighten with the impending need to breed my mate, I felt the base of my cock well as it began to grow a knot for the first time.

Mate. Mine.

The tingling sensation as the knot swelled almost threw me for a loop, until I realized what was happening when I started having a harder time pulling out.

“Yes, alpha. Knot me, baby… Fuck yes… Just like that,” River groaned as he rolled his hips against me, grinding our groins together.

I growled as I slammed my cock in one last time, and then it was wedged and locked inside his rim—truly knotting us together as his walls clamped around me. River’s canines extended with his wolf trying to emerge as he came.

My brain recognized the feeling of his cum shooting between us, but I was more focused on my own release at that moment. As I began to come, I nuzzled into shoulder and sank my teeth into his omega gland—claiming him forever as mine.

I felt a brief flash of pain when River almost simultaneously sank his teeth into my alpha gland, but that immediately morphed into a surreal interlude where our souls merged for a moment outside of time.

For a brief time, it almost felt as though we’d switched bodies, like one of those Freaky Friday movies. I felt myself from his perspective. My weight pinning him to the mattress while I filled his channel with my girthy cock—yet at the same time I was still myself, with those silky walls hugging my knot.

After these strange sensations passed and I was fully in my own mind again, I pulled my teeth free of his flesh and licked his gland clean to help speed the healing. Bracing myself on my elbows after River had done the same courtesy where he’d bitten me, I smiled down into his eyes.

“So, tell me… Did I win?”

River hooked his feet around the inside of my legs and rolled us over onto my back, wriggling around until he was comfortable on my knot before he answered.

“Of course, you won—you just got me as the ultimate prize, didn’t you?” His dimple flashed as he looked up at me with his full lips spread into a wide smile.

Without thinking, I dipped my head and flicked the tip of my tongue over his dimple. River surprised me with a giggle as he jerked away.

“Perv… What the fuck was that?” he teased.

“That was me finally gettin’ a taste of that dimple you like to tease me with,” I answered with a shrug.

I brought one hand up to finger comb his long hair while I brushed it off his sweat dampened skin. I threaded my other hand with his before bringing our joined hands up to my lips for a kiss.

“Oh, hell. Don’t tell me stubborn mister I’m from Maine has a soft side,” Rivers said softly as he nuzzled his cheek against my chest.

“Only for you, snowflake. Just don’t tell anyone—wouldn’t want to ruin my reputation, now would we?”

River snorted. “Like I’m going to tell anybody anything about what happens in our bedroom? I might be free and easy when it comes to the rest of my life, but believe it or not, I don’t share personal things. And baby? You’re as personal as it gets.”

Cradling my palm against the back of his scalp, I held him close against me as I kissed the crown of his head. “I’m glad to hear that, because I’m right there on the same page with you.”

River yawned before speaking again, his voice growing drowsy. “Now that we’ve mated, I wonder how soon it will be before we get to meet the Phoenix?”

I chuckled against the top of his head, before pressing another kiss there. “How about we get past our claimin’ night before you start thinkin’ about what comes next?”

“Okay, I can roll with that,” River said softly right before his breathing slowly deepened as he fell asleep.

I held him for a long time before I slowly relaxed and let myself get pulled under by the beckoning call of sweet slumber.