Chapter Twenty-Eight
Cade woke hours later to Hunter stroking his forehead.
“Something has changed with you,” the alpha said. “You feel warm, your scent is different. I want…”
He kissed the back of Cade’s neck, making Cade shiver.
“Oh.”
“Oh?” Hunter asked. “Is that, ‘oh’, you know what’s going on? Or ‘oh’, please kiss my neck again. Or ‘oh’, that’s where I left my favorite pair of shoes.”
Cade struggled to sit up. “The first one. It’s, um…” He found himself blushing. “We didn’t mate mate when we mated so…”
Hunter held up a hand. “Let’s slow down on the tongue twisters here. We mated but we didn’t… mate?”
“We didn’t have sex,” Cade emphasized. “And now my body is trying to convince you, convince both of us, that it’s a really good idea right about now.”
Which it was. Hunter’s scent was amazing. He felt like he could bury his nose against the alpha’s skin and breathe it in, living on that alone. Who needed oxygen?
Hunter grabbed hold of him and rolled them both, so Cade was lying on his back and Hunter was on top. “It is a really good idea. Brilliant. Fantastic. I am all for it.”
He frowned down at Cade.
“You’re wearing far too many clothes.”
Cade rolled his eyes. “Always a critic. We can’t all be Mr. ‘I shifted into a bear and lost my clothes somewhere along the way’.”
“Convenient for you though, huh? Was that your plan all along, to get me naked?”
As Hunter teased, he helped Cade off with his clothes, leaving them both naked in the afternoon sunlight streaming through the window.
The alpha slipped a hand behind Cade’s neck, leaning down to kiss him. It was hot and heavy, Hunter’s tongue finding his, teasing touches that had him chasing the alpha. When they were breathless, all sensible thoughts gone from their heads, Hunter sat back, straddling Cade’s legs. He raked his eyes slowly down along Cade’s body.
“Stunning,” he murmured.
“Look who’s talking,” Cade whispered in reply. Hunter was strong, well built, but he wasn’t huge. That wasn’t how shifter power worked, the greater the power didn’t mean the bigger the size. But there was no doubting the strength in Hunter’s human form. Cade let his gaze drift from Hunter’s face down along his chest, along the muscles of his stomach and lower. He was hard already, giving Cade ample opportunity to appreciate his length and girth. He knew alphas were well-endowed but seeing it up close was different. He longed to touch, to taste, to kiss. But more than that, he wanted to feel Hunter inside him. He wanted to be mated by him. His body was ready and welcoming.
Hunter’s hands reached down and cupped Cade’s shoulders, then slid along his collarbone before his fingers trailed slow paths down Cade’s chest, teasing his nipples and gliding across the plains of his stomach before branching out to grasp his hips. And then he was flipped, on one quick motion, over onto his hands and knees.
Hunter’s hands were on his mating mark, his fingers kneading the skin, his palms soothing it. Then his hands dipped lower, cupping Cade’s ass.
He pushed back against the alpha.
“Want something?” Hunter teased.
“You. I want you.”
It wasn’t a want, but a need, a need Hunter’s teasing touches were making worse. He couldn’t think straight, couldn’t speak his mind. He just knew the alpha had what he needed.
“What do you mean? Do you want my hands?” One of Hunter’s hands slipped between his legs, a teasing stroke to his shaft before a single finger dragged a slow line between the cheeks of his ass. He pressed against Cade’s hole but didn’t push inside.
“I need you inside me. Please, Hunter.”
Hunter’s finger slowly breached him, the stretch of skin delicious but not enough. His need brought a wetness between his legs that made things easier.
“I need more. Bigger, harder. Please.” He was growing desperate, his need pulled taut by his body’s responses.
“I know,” Hunter assured him, gently pulling back. “I know exactly what you need.”
His hands found Cade’s hips, holding them securely. Cade had a moment to think ‘yes, finally’ as the hard length of Hunter pressed against him, and then the alpha pushed inside, knocking the breath from his lungs.
There was a surge of pleasure and power through his whole body, his vision going white, his voice crying out. They were completing what they’d started the moment Cade set his hand across the alpha’s heart. They were one, connected.
One of Hunter’s hands stroked down his back across his mark. “Can you feel that?” the alpha whispered.
“Yes,” he breathed. Hunter pulled out slowly and Cade shuddered at how his body stretched and pulled.
“Fuck, you’re tight. I’m not hurting you, am I?”
“No,” Cade said, with a shake of his head. “Feels so good. I didn’t know how much I wanted this…”
Whatever he was about to say next was lost in a long moan as Hunter thrust smoothly back inside.
“So beautiful,” Hunter murmured, “taking all of me in like that, like it’s nothing.”
“Doesn’t feel like nothing,” Cade panted, the pressure almost too much to bear until his body yielded, a wave of pleasure washing over him. It was suddenly a struggle to hold himself up, and he pushed back against Hunter, seeking his strength, his solidness. Hunter thrust in again, and again, Cade vocal in his enjoyment of the ways their bodies moved against each other. He let his head rest on the floor, feeling Hunter wrap an arm under his stomach, supporting his weight.
“I’ve got you.”
He knew sex could be intense, but he hadn’t known it would be slow. Or that they’d have to work at it. Taking a breath, he pushed himself back up on his hands, pushing his hips back to meet Hunter’s next thrust. The alpha grunted in appreciation, thrusting harder.
“You can take it, I know you can. I want you, I want all of you.”
And then Hunter’s hands were on him, flipping him onto his back. He barely had a second to take it all in when Hunter was inside him again, Cade’s knees bent, his hips pushed back. They were eye to eye, Hunter’s dark gaze on him.
“I want to watch you,” the alpha said, his voice low as he stroked his finger along Cade’s jaw. “I want to see what my body does to yours. I want to hear every sound.” He traced Cade’s lips. “I want to feel every beat of your heart in mine.”
He placed his hand over Cade’s chest and Cade could feel it happen again, their hearts syncing, their bodies held together by more than Hunter’s hand on his hip or his cock inside him.
When Hunter thrust again, his lips parted with a sigh, his knees tightening around the alpha’s waist.
“Harder,” he begged.
Hunter obliged with a huffed smile. “I love that you know what you what.”
“I know what you want,” Cade countered, breathless, as he tightened around Hunter, sending the alpha’s eyes wide as he moaned long and low.
“Fuck, I… I’m going to come,” he managed to say, his hands closing tight around Cade’s hips, his thrusts coming faster, out of sync with their racing hearts.
“I’m close,” Cade told him, urging him on. Hunter’s hands slipped from Cade’s hips to his waist, and another thrust sent them both sky high, a wave of heat rolling over them, a wave of pleasure following it. Cade heard his own voice cry out, heard Hunter gasp out a curse, and then they were still, little aftershocks teasing them both.
Hunter leaned forward onto his hands, pressing a long kiss to Cade’s lips, then rolled to lie next to him, turning Cade onto his side to that he was facing the wall and Hunter was at his back. His alpha. His protector.
A blanket lay discarded next to them and Hunter reached for it, drawing it up and over them. The alpha understood what it was they’d done, what it meant. Cade would be safe in his hands.