I woke up with big, strong arms pulling me in close. It was the second time in my life I’d woken up like this and I could very easily get used to it. I loved the feel of Dante behind me, his naked body pressed against my back, his dick prodding my ass.

I’d never woken up with another man the morning after. Every single time I’d had sex in the past (granted there weren’t many times) they had either left before the break of day or even straight after. Or it had been at their house and I hadn’t wanted to stick around. It was only ever for sex when I did it with those people. This was something more and it felt like something more. There wasn’t anything hungry or aggressive about it, which was certainly what I was expecting when I joined the Eastwind pack, it was just sweet and careful and kind.

We didn’t have sex. We didn’t fuck. It sounded cheesy as hell, and used a word I wasn’t completely comfortable using yet, but we made love. And it was beautiful.

“Good morning,” he mumbled into my back.

“Hey you,” I said, backing myself up, pressing us all the closer together. “So,” I said. “Last night.”

“It was quite something, wasn’t it?” His voice was layered with sleep, layer upon layer of it. I’d tired him out. I sort of liked that I’d tired him out. “I’m pretty sure I dreamed about us doing it again, you know?”

“Did you?” I said, trying to sound surprised and probably not succeeding. “Well, it doesn’t have to be a dream.”

I felt his cock twitch behind me and I laughed. He started kissing at my back. “Now wouldn’t that be something,” he said between kisses.

I rolled over and kissed him softly on the lips, letting hands run over his taught body in a way they hadn’t had a chance to the night before. I loved the feel of his body. When he hugged me it made me feel safe and, now that we’d slept together, I knew that I was safe with him during that too. He was so considerate and sweet and, while I wouldn’t mind it getting a little bit rougher between us at some point, that first time had been perfect. I wished my first time had been like that.

I grabbed hold of his dick and started jerking it with my own, holding the two of them with one of my hands and moving them up and down until they were slick and sliding across one another. I was about to go down and start sucking on his dick again, it had tasted so fucking good last night, when he stopped me.

“What?” I said. “Did I hurt you? You tender from last night or something?”

He snorted. “No, not at all, trust me,” he said. “I just want to give you something. That’s all.”

He threw the duvet cover off and kissed his way down my body, every time his lips connected with my skin a shiver rushed over my whole body. If this was going where I thought this was going, I was going to be very happy indeed.

He got down to my dick and started jerking it up and down, his hands slipping on it from the precum that had leaked over it, both his and mine. Then he put his mouth on it. Just the tip at first (I could tell he’d not done this before) but then he started moving down it, slowly bobbing his head up and down.

I wasn’t used to getting my dick sucked, that’s for sure. I was so used to pleasing alphas and pleasuring alphas, a lot of them didn’t give you the time of day. This was incredible. I loved being inside of him in this way. I loved him drinking my precum and licking my dick from the base right to the tip. I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to have sex again; I was so ready for us to have sex again.

I rolled over, exposing my bare ass to him, to get to the drawer where he kept the lube. I heard him growl as he checked out my ass, which was certainly good enough for me. It was nice to know I could get him going like this. This was exactly what I wanted. I wanted him to feel attracted to me.

I started lubing up my own hole this time, passing the lube and a condom over to him. This was all so different to how I thought it was going to be. I’d been so prepared to come in and go bare and...well...father pups for him and for anyone else in the pack. Now we were taking it slow, we had to be safer. As much fun as it would be to go bare, that would carry a risk and a potential huge commitment which we weren’t ready for right now, not at all. He was ready in no time and I lay on my back, lifting my legs up, waiting for him to enter me. He was slow again, methodical. He had to pull out and put on more lube (his dick was so fucking big, it was ridiculous) but it wasn’t long before he was making love to me again. It was slow and tender, and this time, because wasn’t focusing so much on how he was doing or whether or not he was hurting me, he bent down and spent his time kissing me while he fucked me. I moaned into his mouth, which he seemed to like, and nibbled on his neck when he got close enough, which seemed to drive him wild.

Slowly, I learned more and more about him, more about the things that turned him on and made him hot. I was starting to know him better than I knew anyone else. I knew how much he liked to be the bigger spoon, how his beautiful eyes twinkled when I suggested we snuggle, the little dimple in his right cheek when he smiled, that giggle that sounded so sweet and angelic whenever something really tickled him. I’d never had a chance to know anyone like this. It had always been quick and occasionally painful and then over before we really got to explore each other’s bodies. With this I could take my time and explore him and get to know him.

He leaned down so his head was by my neck as he started to pick up the pace, his dick going in and out quick enough that every thrust made me gasp. His breath was on my neck, which tickled and teased, and he nibbled and sucked on my collarbone, which I knew would leave a mark but it really didn’t matter. Let him mark me as his own. Let him show every other wolf in this pack that I was his and only his.

It was in that moment I realized that was what I wanted. That was it. I wanted to be Dante’s. I wanted to know everything about him. Which meant he would need to know me too. I’d have to open up.

“Oh god, Owen,” he said, his body tensing. He was getting close and it wasn’t long before he was biting down on my neck, screaming into me as he gave one last thrust and filled the condom again.

The tension in his body faded and he fell on top of me in a sweaty heap. I ran my hands over his back which made him shiver, and he leant over and kissed me hard on the lips.

He waggled his eyebrows. “Now you,” he said.

“What?”

“Your turn,” he said, reaching down and taking hold of my soaking wet dick. He started to jerk it, the squelching sound more than a little distracting as he tightened his fist around me.

He leaned down and started flicking his tongue on my right nipple, which drove me completely insane. I couldn’t hold on for too much longer, and I was coming all over my chest again pretty soon, completely spent and worn out.

“Holy shit,” I said. “Found my nipples then.”

“You like that?” he asked.

“Oh, god yeah,” I said.

“Noted,” he said, smiling broadly and pinching one, making me moan a little. He kissed me hard again. Now this was another thing I could definitely get used to, something I hoped wouldn’t stop when we left the bedroom. At some point when he came last night he started kissing me more, and I found myself really enjoying it. It was another thing that made me feel wanted, that made me feel like I was being claimed.

I got in the shower after Dante and we ate breakfast together. He was so bubbly and chatty this morning and it was rubbing off on me. It was like any tension that we’d had was gone and we were finally feeling properly comfortable around each other.

When he left, I got myself ready and headed back down to Horus’ cabin. I needed to tell him how the previous night had been. I’d leave out the details, but I just wanted to let him know that being open with Dante worked.

I knocked on his door and he quickly answered, a smile on his face. “Owen again,” he said. “What brings you to my neck of the woods?”

“I wanted to thank you for yesterday,” I said.

“You smoothed things over with Dante?”

“Everything you said worked,” I said. “We’re going to take it slowly, but he understood me, he heard where I was coming from. So, I wanted to thank you for giving me that advice. It was so great.”

“You’re more than welcome,” he smiled at me. “You can come to me whenever you need to, Owen, I want you to know that.”

It warmed me. It warmed me in a way that I hadn’t truly felt before. He was going to be here for me if I wanted him to be and that made me so happy.

“Thank you, Horus,” I said. “I really appreciate it.”

Our mornings became something of a routine. I got to sleep in a bed with Dante every night. Sometimes we’d have sex, other times we’d just snuggle. It was so different from the life I was expecting when I got here and I was very quickly getting used to feeling so taken care of.

I knew I needed to start thinking about my role within the pack, what my function was. At Lakeshore, I had taken care of pups while other members of the pack went off to work. I had been good at it, but that wasn’t really needed here since there weren’t any pups around. I’d have to talk to Dante about it. If I wasn’t going to be some kind of baby-making machine for the rest of the pack, I’d need to find something to do.

Waking up with Dante was wonderful. We’d take turns making breakfast, sometimes eating it in bed, sometimes eating it at the breakfast bar, and I would clean up while he got ready to go on his rounds. Most of the time I would join him but, on other occasions, I would stay here and read or meet with Horus or even meet with some of the people in the camp.

They were becoming familiar with me. They were used to seeing me around and I was used to being around them.

I stepped outside more door to go and see Horus one morning a couple of weeks after our first time together. I’d been seeing him quite often, every couple of days in fact to tell him how things were going with Dante. He seemed so invested in the relationship and the more I talked about, the more I wanted to spend all of my time with Dante, the more I wanted to be with him and make him happen. I could feel my whole world opening up before me, the emotional shackles of Lakeshore fading away.

“Good morning, Owen,” a woman’s voice pulled my focus as I stepped out of the cabin. Martha, a woman who lived with her partner Becky further down in the forest was stood not too far away from my door. She had a bright smile on her dark skinned face and gorgeous curly hair that always looked so unbelievably bouncy. She had a basket of flowers with her, some of them already tied into little bouquets with bits of twine. “Where are you off to today?” she asked.

“Heading down to see Horus,” I said, turning around and locking the door. I liked Martha. I saw her around quite a lot. “Yourself?”

“Picking some flowers for the cabin while Becky is working,” she said. “Trying to brighten up the place.” She reached into her basket and pulled out a bunch, handing them to me. “Take these with you.”

“For me?”

“No,” she chuckled. “Though you’re more than welcome. I meant for Horus. I imagine it gets pretty lonely down in that cabin all by himself, maybe some flowers would be good for him too.”

I took them and bid her good day, heading further into the woods to go and see Horus. I bumped into a few other people on the way, Eric doing his rounds, some of the younger pups enjoying their time off from school to play around in the woods.

“You’ve come with flowers!” Horus said when he opened the door. “What on earth have you brought flowers with you for?” he asked with a slight chuckle.

“They’re from Martha,” I said. “She thought they might help brighten up the place.”

“You think my place isn’t bright?”

“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger,” I said. “Do you have a vase?”

He smiled. “Just under the sink.”

He let me inside and I filled up a vase, popping the flowers inside and standing them on the coffee table. Horus made us some tea and we sat down in his living room as we often did.

“How are things?” he asked.

“Very well,” I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. He must have noticed because he was smiling too. “It all just seems to be working for us.”

“And you’re okay letting him in,” he said. “Letting Dante get to know you.”

“It’s the easiest thing in the world,” I said. “I want him to know me. I want him to know me better than anyone else.”

“Then it would appear that my work here is done,” he said with a satisfied grin. “I’m very glad you two are getting on so well. It lifts my heavy, aged heart.”

I took a sip of my tea. He’d chosen a mint blend today which smelled so good and tasted even better.

“What about you Horus?” I asked. “How are things for you?”

He shrugged. “Same as always. I get my daily visitors, you and a few others often come in to check on me, Dante comes at least once a week,” he said with a smile. “It’s been like that since…well, since Elliot passed and I’ve lived alone.”

He’d never mentioned Elliot before. I vaguely recalled Dante saying once that Horus had a mate who he’d been with for his whole life. Apparently they’d been like grandparents to Dante, which was why he stayed in such close contact with Horus all these years later. He was family.

“What happened to Elliot?” I asked tentatively. We’d never really talked much about Horus’ past. We’d focussed on the now, how he was and my future with Dante. I felt a sudden wave of shame that there was a whole part of his life that I knew nothing about because I’d been so wrapped up in my own thing.

“Oh, you don’t want to hear my old stories,” he said, taking another sip of his drink.

I eyed him carefully. “I really would, Horus,” I said. “If you don’t mind sharing, of course, I wouldn’t want to pry.”

He sighed and put his teacup on the table, leaning back in his chair. He folded his fingers across his chest in front of him and looked to the ceiling. I half wanted to look too, like that was going to give me his story. Then he jolted, pointing a finger in the air like he’d suddenly remembered something.

He got up from his chair and tottered over to the kitchen. I heard him rummage through a drawer and come back with a heavy, leather bound book that he dumped on the table between us. He opened the first page and, it took me a second to recognize him, there was a young Horus staring back at me.

He still had his long shaggy hair, but it was dark rather than grey, the lines in his face hadn’t grown in yet and he was laughing. The man next to him was laughing too. He had these amazing white teeth that stood out against his darker complexion and this unbridled joy about him that was so infectious that I found myself smiling.

“That was taken on our wedding day,” Horus said.

I blinked. “Wedding day?”

“Oh not in the traditional sense, of course,” Horus said. “But that was the day we made vows in front of the rest of the pack and told them all we would be together forever. I’d say it was the happiest day of my life but every day that followed was happier and happier so, in a strange way, my wedding day was probably one of my favourite memories but one of the least happy days of my life with Elliot.”

“What happened?”

Horus sighed, I could tell it hurt him to dredge up these memories. I was about to tell him not to worry about it when he started speaking again. “There was an attack on us before we moved here. We used to be a lot closer to the town than we are now. We got found out, a couple of young wolves weren’t being careful while they were out drinking in the town and they shifted in front of a crowd of people. The people in the town panicked and followed them back here.” He took a beat, staring out of the window like he could see it all over again. “We hardly had any time to get away. Elliot was one of the volunteers who stayed to fend them off, to stop them from following us to where we were going next. He promised he would meet me here, at our new home. But he never came.”

“Horus, that’s awful,” I said.

“We had so many more adventures to go on,” he said. “So many happy days left.” He looked at me earnestly, reaching across and taking hold of my hand. “Don’t waste your happy days with Dante, Owen.” He squeezed my hand tight. “You never know when it’s going to be the last one. Tell him how you feel every chance you get.” He sighed. “While it hurt me so much that Elliot had been killed, I told him I loved him every single day. And before I left him that night to go to our new home, I told him I loved him and I would see him soon. He died knowing just how much I loved him and I suppose that is the best I could ask for.”

We finished up our tea and I found myself giving Horus a hug before I left him behind that day. We hadn’t hugged before, never truly moved beyond cursory contact, handshakes and the like. I think he was wary of me being from Lakeshore. He knew better than most that we weren’t a touchy-feely people. But I needed to hug him, not just because of his sad story about Elliot, but for everything he had said about Dante and I. I resolved not to waste my time with Dante. I wanted every day with him to be happier than the one that preceded it.

I walked back up towards the main part of the camp, popping over to Martha’s and buying some of her flowers to give to Dante. She could hardly bear how sweet it was, squealing and telling me that she couldn’t wait to tell Becky. Everyone cared about Dante so much. It made them happy to see him happy. And it made me happy to know I was the one making it so.

As I was leaving, I caught sight of Lesander staring at me, whispering to someone I didn’t recognize. When he started over towards me, I wanted to run. I so desperately wanted to just pretend I hadn’t seen him.

“Good afternoon, Owen,” he said, a little too brightly. “Off seeing Horus again.”

“Just checking in and making sure he’s all right,” I said, clutching the flowers a little closer to my chest.

“Those for Dante?” I nodded. “Aw, aren’t you a sweet little omega? I hope you’re enjoying yourself.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I said.

“Nothing,” he said. “Nothing at all. You’re playing a very good game to stay here, that’s all.”

Game? What game?

“Leave him alone, Lesander,” Eric appeared at my side, his face scrunched up in anger. “He’s done nothing to you, carry on your day.”

“I wasn’t doing a damn thing,” he said, not taking his eyes off me. “Just saying hello to everyone’s favorite new pack member, little Owen.”

“Well that’s very nice of you,” Eric said with a fake smile on his face. “How about you take a walk then? Get on with your day.”

“Goodbye, little omega,” Lesander said with a smirk. “Bye Eric.”

He walked away, rejoining whoever it was he had been talking to and stalking off down the forest trail and out of sight.

“What is his deal?” I asked. Lesander was exhausting. I never really knew where I stood with him, though all signs pointed to him not liking me all that much. We saw him quite often, given he was one of Dante’s betas and also Dante’s best friend. He was nice to me when Dante was around but when he wasn’t he was positively hateful. I was glad Eric had been so close by.

“He’s…troubled,” Eric said. He was hiding something, I could see it in the way he looked in the direction Lesander had stalked off. He wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“Because his Dad died?” I asked.

He looked at me, a flicker of surprise passing across his face. He hadn’t expected me to know that, that much was obvious. “It’s more than that,” he said. “There was an accident and…” he trailed off. “It’s really not my place to say,” he said. “If you want answers, you should ask Dante. But you should steer clear of Lesander if you can. He’s deeply troubled.” Eric turned and walked away from me, back towards the forest. I half wanted to follow him, half wanted to get home to see if I could convince Dante to talk to me about Lesander.

I turned and went back to the cabin feeling utterly confused. What had happened to Lesander to make him that way? What did Dante know?