The entire time, Dante had thought this was a dream.

He’d found his omega. Finn still looked the same, maybe with a bit more gray in his hair, and a few fine wrinkles on his face. But he was alive, warm, his mouth hungry against Dante. He’d all but fallen into Dante’s arms, moaning, his body straining. Dante’s own flesh had responded with hunger.

Now, seeing Finn on the couch, his legs bare, the angry scars stretched across his skin... This was no dream.

Not when the scar on Finn’s leg ran from the top of his thigh to mid-calf, a jagged patch of pink undulating ripples. It branched out like lightning, divots of flesh gouged out, leaving his skin dimpled. Smaller, silvery scars dotted both his legs, but that red scar tissue, the uneven coloring and whorls of badly-healed flesh...

A long time ago, Finn had blushed when Dante told him he was pretty. Dante had caught Finn looking in the mirrors, admiring his own body, the arch of his back, the lines of his legs.

So maybe Finn had been a little vain—Dante didn’t mind. He cared more about all the other facets of Finn. But for this to happen, for Finn to lose that confidence in himself, when he’d taught Dante to believe in his own abilities... It hurt.

How had he not found Finn? How had he allowed Finn to be hurt so badly? Dante’s heart twisted.

“I’m sorry,” Dante said again. Finn shrugged, avoiding his eyes.

How else was he to prove this didn’t matter?

“You’re still beautiful to me,” Dante said.

Finn sucked in a sharp breath.

Dante dragged his fingers carefully over Finn’s calf, kneading into stiff tissue. Finn’s eyelids fluttered shut; his mouth fell open. Maybe it hurt, but Finn seemed to enjoy it. And that took some of the suffocating guilt off Dante’s chest.

As he massaged Finn’s leg, Finn relaxed into the couch. Dante kissed his knee, rubbed slow circles down his calf, then back up. Finn tipped his head back, moaning.

The sound went straight down to Dante’s cock.

He’d known the whole time that Finn was in heat; he’d been distracted by Finn’s legs. Now, looking at his omega spread out before him, Dante’s instincts came awake again.

He needed to claim Finn for himself, fill him up. Bond with Finn for real this time.

Dante swallowed hard, his cock stirring.

He focused harder on stroking Finn’s thigh, avoiding his groin. Rubbed tender skin with his fingertips. Dante admired his omega—the arch of his throat, the heave of his chest, the curve of his balls behind his briefs. He wanted Finn beneath him, taking his cock.

Finn spread his legs. Desire blazed through Dante’s gut, sharp, aching.

“Finn,” Dante rasped, his hands trembling. He fought down his wolf. If he gave in, he’d be inside Finn in two seconds. “Don’t... don’t do that.”

Blue eyes opened. Finn met Dante’s gaze, his tongue flicking over his lip. “Do what?”

Dante glanced down, staring at the bulge of Finn’s cock. Finn’s eyes widened, his throat worked. Musk coiled between them; Finn wanted Dante.

Finn slid his hand between his legs, covering his cock. “We shouldn’t. I’m... I’m in heat.”

“You want me inside,” Dante whispered.

Between the gaps of his fingers, Dante watched as Finn’s cock thickened. His throat grew dry. Dante kneaded his fingertips up Finn’s leg, stroking along the sensitive skin of his inner thigh. Then he leaned in, pressing slow, damp kisses up Finn’s leg, hovering right next to his briefs.

Finn whined, his spine arching, his legs parting. The musk of his heat rolled through Dante’s body, made his pants tight.

“I can help with your heat,” Dante said.

Finn gulped; he knew how good they could be together. Dante had made him scream before. He could do it again.

Then Dante sank his teeth lightly into the skin of Finn’s better thigh, and Finn gasped, his fingers winding into Dante’s hair. “Dante!”

“Let me—”

The hunger in Dante’s body exploded into a ravenous, pressing need. It scorched through his veins, went right down to his cock. In seconds, he was painfully hard, his pants stretched to bursting.

Dante gasped, winded. “The fuck?”

And now all he could see was Finn, all he could smell was Finn’s desire, his sweat, the slick leaking out of his hole. Dante needed to be inside. He knew the tight heat of Finn’s body. Needed to fill Finn with his seed.

“Can’t—can’t think,” Dante panted.

Finn groaned, his hips rolling. He hadn’t looked away from Dante. “Don’t... don’t tell me you’re in a rut.”

“Think I am,” Dante said. His tongue was heavy in his mouth, useless for talking now. It was only good for licking, tasting, pushing inside his omega.

Finn writhed. Dante smelled the desire on his body, the scent of dill, musk, traces of cherry-wood he’d left on Finn. He smelled the old sweat on the couch, the spilled wine, the musk from when Finn had spent previous heats there, his come smeared into the couch.

Dante licked up Finn’s thigh, sucked on sensitive skin. Finn jerked against him. The head of his cock pushed out through the leg of his briefs, his foreskin pulling away from his hungry tip. It looked lewd, hot, inviting a taste.

Dante leaned in, licking over Finn’s foreskin. Then he flattened his tongue against the opening of that skin, finding Finn’s hungry, precome-slick tip. He licked it.

“F-Fuck,” Finn gasped, covering his cock.

Dante cupped Finn’s hand with his own, pressed down on it, so Finn squeezed his own cock. Finn gasped, shoving his feet beneath himself for leverage. Then he lifted his hips, and the scent of his musk slammed into Dante.

Dante snarled, pulling Finn’s hand off his briefs. He anchored his palms on Finn’s thighs, buried his face between Finn’s legs. Nuzzled the hard line of Finn’s cock, kissing it through his briefs. Finn cried out in surprise, rutting against Dante’s face.

“Mine,” Dante growled, licking down Finn’s balls, leaving Finn’s underwear damp with spit.

He mouthed at Finn’s vulnerable sac, blowing on it so his hot breath caressed Finn’s skin. Finn whimpered, writhing. He was in such great need, and Dante could give him everything he craved.

Dante kissed along Finn’s cock, base to tip, where it peeked out from Finn’s briefs, smearing precome on Finn’s thigh. Dante licked the salty droplets up, rolled it on his tongue. Finn pushed Dante’s head down, held Dante’s lips to his cock. Shoved up at him.

Dante took Finn’s tip into his mouth, slipped his tongue under Finn’s foreskin, and swirled around it. It was a lewd kiss, dirty and hot and damp. Dante pushed between Finn’s skin and his tip, in and out, like he was fucking his omega. Finn whimpered, his thin chest heaving, his pupils blown wide.

Dante’s wolf howled in his chest. Finn needed him.

He pulled away from Finn’s cock, leaving a line of precome stretched between them, glistening in the lamplight. Then he licked his lips, met Finn’s eyes.

“Gonna fuck you ‘til you scream.”

Finn shuddered, reaching down, slipping his fingers under his briefs. Then he pulled his cheeks apart, exposing his hole to the air. The musk of his arousal filled Dante’s nostrils, made him throb. His jeans were too fucking tight.

He swore, tugging his belt open, undoing his jeans. Pulled his cock out to ease the pressure. Finn’s gaze fell between Dante’s legs; his throat worked.

“Want somethin’?” Dante rumbled, stroking his own cock. He angled it down, showing Finn the length of it. Finn loved it inside him, loved Dante pumping him full of come. Loved it on his skin, inside his mouth, marking him with Dante’s scent.

“Yes,” Finn breathed, his eyes dark with longing. He scrambled around on the couch, pushed his hips up into the air, his thin briefs stretched across his ass.

Dante nearly mounted him. Nearly ripped off his briefs and slammed inside.

He held himself back by a thread, his cock pulsing. Shrugged out of his clothes. Then he braced his knees against the couch, between Finn’s legs. Leaned in to press his chest to Finn’s back, smelling his hair. Finn smelled faintly like shampoo and wood shavings, and the mess of scents from the marketplace.

Finn groaned, rocking his ass against Dante’s abs. Dante growled, shoved his cock against Finn’s tight ass, let him feel the heavy length of it.

Finn panted. Dante slipped his hands under Finn’s sweater, touched the expanse of his flat belly and his chest. His nipples were hard, his pulse fluttering against Dante’s palm.

Dante pulled Finn’s sweater up his chest. It was damp from the rain, and Finn was a little cold. He shivered when Dante stroked his stomach, then moaned when Dante angled his own cock down, fitting it between Finn’s legs. It nudged against Finn’s balls, sliding against cotton.

Maybe it wasn’t enough, showing Finn what he wanted. Dante reached down, lifted the elastic of Finn’s briefs away from his thigh.

Then he pushed his cock into Finn’s underwear, letting it slide against Finn’s balls, his cock. Finn groaned, rocking back against Dante. “Don’t—Don’t tease!”

“Not teasin’.” Dante reached around Finn, lined their cocks up in the briefs, allowing it to hold them together. He stroked his cock against Finn’s, groaning at the slide of velvety skin, Finn’s cock leaking onto his. So damn intimate, their sensitive parts pressed together like this.

Then he pushed his cock up past the waistband, so it slid against Finn’s belly. Finn whined, looking down at Dante’s cock. “Gods, Dante. You’re so—so big.”

“Ready for me?” Dante rasped. He slid against Finn’s belly, squeezing the firm muscle of Finn’s ass. Ran his fingers down the softness of Finn’s balls, circling them with his fingers.

There was an old fang tale, that if you touched an omega’s sac during his heat, he’d be twice as fertile. Three times if you stroked him enough.

The wolf in Dante growled loud. He wanted Finn fertile. Wanted Finn to take his seed—all of it.

Dante closed his hand around Finn’s sac, stroking him through the briefs. Then he grasped Finn’s briefs with both his hands and ripped the material into two, right down the middle.

Finn gasped. When Dante reached between his legs, he found Finn’s balls hanging out of the rip in his briefs. His cock had slipped free, straining up hungrily. So damn ready.

Dante curled his fingers around Finn’s sac, felt his balls slide behind his skin. He squeezed Finn carefully in his palm, until Finn jerked against him, gasping, his cock jumping against his belly.

“Dante,” Finn groaned, his nails digging into the backrest of the couch.

“Preppin’ you up,” Dante murmured, sliding his cock out of Finn’s ruined underwear. He ripped them off Finn’s hips, then shoved Finn’s sweater off his shoulders; Finn shrugged out of them.

And now Finn was stark naked beneath him, his back speckled with silvery scars, his ass pressed against Dante’s hips, pale and tight. Just right for spreading, for opening and taking Dante’s cock. Dante’s breath rushed out of him.

He slid his hands down Finn’s ass, spread his cheeks open with his palms. Found Finn’s tight hole, pink and puckered, glistening with slick. His cock throbbed.

Dante circled Finn’s hole with his fingertip, growling when it relaxed for him. He slid his finger against it, gathering Finn’s slick. Then he pushed his finger into Finn’s tight, wet heat, watching as Finn stretched around him.

Finn moaned, loud and throatily, his body squeezing around Dante. He felt like a furnace inside, and Dante remembered how good Finn had been around his cock. He found Finn’s prostate, pressed down against it.

Finn tensed, his spine arching. When Dante slid his arm around Finn, he found Finn’s cock, precome trailing down the front of it.

“Please,” Finn whispered. “Dante.”

“Where d’you want me?” Dante growled, swirling his finger inside Finn, fucking him lightly, until Finn’s body sucked around him, trying to drag him deeper. Dante pulled his finger out.

“No!” Finn whimpered, digging his fingers into his cheeks, spreading himself so all Dante could see was his tight hole, ready for the taking. “Inside, please. Now.”

Dante’s blood pounded in his cock. He hissed, pushing two fingers into Finn. Finn spread around him, and Dante parted his fingers, watching as Finn’s hole opened around them. Finn writhed, pushed his ass up. Dante’s balls pulled tight, heavy with come.

He lubed himself thoroughly with Finn’s moisture. Rested his cock between Finn’s cheeks, just to let Finn know what he was about to receive. Finn panted, tried to sit himself down on Dante’s cock, except its head slipped between his cheeks.

Dante angled himself down, intending only to let Finn have his tip at first. He pushed against Finn’s entrance, watched as Finn opened around him. Then Finn’s body engulfed Dante’s tip, hot and tight and good, and Dante’s instincts roared.

He slammed in the rest of the way. Finn’s voice cracked. He stretched around Dante, tight, intoxicating.

Fuck, Dante had missed this. He withdrew slightly, fucking back in. Pleasure razed down his nerves.

“More,” Finn groaned, rocking back onto Dante, his entire body trembling with sheer need.

Dante braced one hand on the top of the couch, and slipped his other arm against Finn’s chest. Pulled Finn upright, so his back arched against Dante, his firm ass pressed against Dante’s hips.

Then Dante fucked viciously into him, stroking Finn inside with his cock, grinding hard into his prostate. Finn shuddered, his legs trembling, his fingers shaking as he gripped Dante’s arm.

“Harder?” Dante snarled.

“Yes!” Finn shoved back at him.

Dante leaned them forward for leverage, then fucked hard and fast into his omega, each thrust sending him closer to the edge. Their hips slapped together. Finn writhed in his arms. The scent of his arousal flooded Dante’s nostrils, thick musk that made him throb. Dante couldn’t think, could only feel Finn around him, knowing that when he came, Finn would take his seed, his knot.

It was enough to send him straight to the edge.

“I-I’m going to—” Finn moaned, reaching down.

“Take my knot,” Dante snarled, pounding into him, his balls squeezing tight. Pleasure exploded through his body as he thrust a final time into Finn, pushing deep, his seed spurting into his omega.

Finn tensed, his spine arching as he climaxed, a cry ripping from his throat.

Dante held him down, growling as his knot began to swell. Finn panted. It was tight inside him, more so when Dante’s knot grew to its fullest, locking them together. Each of Finn’s movements tugged on Dante’s knot, sent pleasure through his nerves.

In that moment, everything felt right. Dante pressed sloppy kisses along Finn’s shoulder, nuzzled that unblemished spot at the crook of his neck.

Mine, his instincts demanded. He’d mated with his omega. Finn carried his seed.

Dante sank his teeth into that vulnerable spot on Finn’s neck. Finn cried out, shuddering against him. Blood bloomed across Dante’s tongue, warm and coppery—Finn’s blood.

He swallowed it, licked over the bite wound, the wolf in his chest howling with satisfaction. Finn was his now.

Warmth swept through Dante’s body, from the top of his head to the toes of his feet. Finn panted, his skin damp, his heart hammering against Dante’s palm.

Gods, Dante, Finn’s voice whispered in Dante’s mind.

Dante froze. What? he thought.

Beneath him, Finn tensed. “What—what just happened?” he said aloud. “Please don’t... don’t tell me you imprinted on me.”

But the moment Finn said it, Dante knew it had already happened. He had heard Finn’s voice in his head, loud and clear. I hear you, Dante thought.

Finn groaned, sinking against the couch. “Dante, no.”

Dante’s stomach dropped. “No?”

I’m too old for you, Finn said in his head. I was your teacher.

I love you, Dante thought, knowing Finn would hear it. I always have.

Finn’s breath hitched; his pulse stumbled against Dante’s palm.

Dante frowned, hating that he could only see the back of Finn’s head. With his knot still inside Finn, he scooped his omega into his arms, then stood. Walked to Finn’s bedroom, where there was a wide mirror hanging from the wall, to the side of the narrow twin bed.

Then he sat them down on the edge of the mattress, so they could see each other through the mirror.

He realized there were scars on Finn’s belly, too, jagged red marks that had been hidden by Finn’s sweater. Dante’s breath caught.

“You don’t want to be my omega?” he asked, sliding his palm over Finn’s chest.

Finn looked down—Dante realized Finn was looking at his bum leg. So Dante pressed his palm over Finn’s scars, squeezing his thigh.

“This doesn’t matter to me,” Dante whispered. “It never will.”

Finn gulped, closing his eyes. “There are plenty of omegas out there.”

“I bit you, didn’t I? I came back for you.”

I can’t believe you did, Finn’s voice whispered in his head.

“You’re alive,” Dante said. Then he slipped his arm beneath Finn’s knees, trying to turn him around so they could face each other. “C’mon, help me, here.”

Finn complied reluctantly, his forehead creased. The moment he pulled his leg across to straddle Dante, Dante kissed his omega firmly on the lips, sliding into his mouth. Finn moaned.

“Mine,” Dante whispered. “You’re all mine now.”

Finn returned the kiss, leaning into Dante. He wound his slender fingers into Dante’s hair. Peered into his eyes. “You’re going to regret mating with me.”

“I won’t.” Dante pressed another kiss to Finn’s lips, breathing him in. “What I regret is leaving you for five years. And... and this. This shouldn’t have happened.”

He touched Finn’s thigh carefully. Finn blushed a dark red, looking away. “It looks terrible.”

“It’s proof that you’re alive,” Dante murmured. “It’s proof that I’m not in a dream.”

As selfish as it was, Dante was secretly glad for the scar—he couldn’t have been hallucinating something so ghastly.

Finn’s throat worked; he looked down between them, where they were knotted together, his spent cock pressed against Dante’s abs. Dante caught the droplet of come from his tip, licking it off his finger. It was bitter on his tongue, tasting like Finn.

Finn blushed. Then he froze, his gaze darting up to meet Dante’s. “I’m in heat.”

“That’s why we fucked,” Dante said, growling. Pride swelled in his chest. You’re my omega now.

Nine years—that was how long it took Dante, from meeting Finn, to becoming his alpha. He wanted to howl, to tell the world Finn was his.

Finn hid his face in his hands. “I’m fertile right now, Dante. That means—” Finn swallowed “—that means I’ll get with child.”