They lay together in bed in Rowan’s trailer house, fully-dressed right down to their shoes. The cops who brought them here had warned them they might need to be able to get moving at a moment’s notice, so getting naked together just to cuddle wasn’t in the cards for tonight.

Derrick was surprisingly okay with that. There was something about clutching at handfuls of Rowan’s shirt that was distinctly comforting. He probably wouldn’t have been able to disengage quickly anyway, his hands were wrapped up so deeply in fabric.

At least the house was dark. That was just about the only thing right in this situation.

Rowan made soft, deep sounds underneath his breath, not quite growls but more like coos. His hands roamed soothingly up and down Derrick’s back, caressing him and soothing some of the tension away from his spine. Pressing closer to him, Derrick slid one of his legs between Rowan’s, wanting to feel as close to him as possible.

He almost didn’t realize that Rowan was speaking, until the steady rhythm of Rowan’s soothing sounds started to waver. Opening his eyes, peering up into his boyfriend’s face in the dark, Derrick tried to pay attention.

“I realized something, when I was off doing that…job.” Rowan paused, as if expecting Derrick to interrupt him, and then continued on softly, figuring out the words as he went. “Not everyone’s what they seem to be when you first meet them. My boss turned out to be some big drug kingpin. Terry wasn’t such a bad guy after all. And you, you’re pretty okay, too.”

“Is this the part where I get to reassure you that you’re all right, too?” He wanted to sound teasing, but the truth was that he would gladly have talked for hours on that subject if Rowan needed him to.

“No, thanks. I’m very much an amazing wolf.” Rowan sounded as if he was rolling his eyes when he said this, although Derrick would have agreed with him on that. “But I think that I realized that I can’t just go through life always thinking the same things about myself when there are things around me that are changing. I should change, too. Shouldn’t I?”

Derrick cuddled closer to his boyfriend, rubbing his softer cheek on Rowan’s scraggly one. “Only if you want to. Only if it makes sense. But I don’t think you can just decide to change. Well, maybe you can, being as amazing as you are.”

Rowan chuckled softly, continuing to stroke Derrick’s back. “Maybe I can’t just decide to change but I can decide to do better.”

“That sounds more realistic.”

“So, I’ve decided. I want to like kids.”

Derrick’s heart skipped a beat, then stuttered rapidly twice, like a drummer’s flam.

“I know you’ve always talked about why you like teaching so much, and why working with the kids makes you happy, but I never even tried to understand. I just thought, good for you. And that was it. But now that I’m going to have one of my own, I want to know what all the fuss is about.” Rowan slid one of his hands around from Derrick’s back to his stomach, letting the heavy, comforting weight of his palm and fingers linger.

Derrick trembled underneath Rowan’s touch. It struck him all over again that this man lying in bed with him was a fearsome alpha wolf, who had badly injured and maybe even killed another man who had done him wrong. This person being so tender with him could choose to be terrifying and ferocious, but would never act that way towards him.

“Will you tell me everything again, Derry? So I can try to understand? If you’ll let me, I’ll be here every step of the way. I want to know what it’s like.”

“I only ever told you the good stuff,” Derrick whispered. His breath hit Rowan’s neck, and now it was the alpha’s turn to tremble. “There’s a lot of stuff that sucks, too.”

“You don’t sound like you care.”

“It’s worth it, in the end. Did you see them up on the stage? Really see them? I was so proud of them.”

So proud of all of them. It’s just not the same when none of them actually belong to me. It feels a little more distant.

“I did see them,” Rowan agreed. “And I thought…it was a way of seeing them like you do. I want to know more about that. Help me?”

Derrick’s heart was melting inside him, warming with a tenderness and joy that he never thought he would experience. He pressed closer to Rowan, and Rowan held him even closer until not even a sheet of paper could have found its way between them. Tangled up like that, it was all too easy to let himself close his eyes and forget the trouble hanging over them. Rowan’s heart beat time for both of them, saying Derrick’s name over and over in a comforting cadence. They were just two wolves, brought together by odd circumstances, doing the best they could with what they had.

Doing pretty damn good, if anyone asked his opinion.

“Does that mean you really will stick around?” he asked. Even though Rowan had already reassured him of that, he had to ask it anyway. He thought he might be asking the same thing 20 years from now, because it was more about the routine of it all than hearing an answer that he already knew. Sometimes a person just had to be reminded of things like that, reassured of lighter things in the middle of darker times.

Much to his relief, Rowan didn’t scold him for the question. Gentle fingers brushed against Derrick’s cheek, lifting his face up so that their eyes met. Derrick gazed into those warm irises, so green right now, like the first tender leaves sprouting after a winter thaw. They held so much promise, so much potential inside them.

“I’ll stick around,” Rowan promised. His voice was deep and firm, the voice of an alpha making a promise he fully intended to keep. Derrick had never known an alpha to break a promise before, and he didn’t think that Rowan would be the first. “I’ll do better than stick around. I’ll stay because I want to, because you captivated me from the very start. Because I’ve gotten to know you, and no one else would ever be able to compare to you. Because I want to make you mine.”

A hot thrill coursed through Derrick’s body at those words. Quite suddenly, it seemed that everywhere Rowan touched him was kindling, turning to flame. He shivered, fingers clenching harder at the knots of fabric clutched in his fists. The real meaning behind those words was clearer to him than a window, allowing him to see straight through to Rowan’s soul. If he agreed, if he said yes, that soul would be bound to his. They would be as one.

There was no doubt inside him at all about what his answer was.

Resting his forehead on Rowan’s shoulder, Derrick offered up the back of his neck to be claimed by the other. The mark placed upon him by a swift bite would tie them together as mates for life, letting all who came across them know that they belonged to each other.

Hot breath hit the back of Derrick’s neck, and he closed his eyes to accept the claiming, bracing for it. There would be pain, but all beautiful things in the world were worth a little sting or two.

Rowan’s lips grazed the back of his neck, pressing a kiss gently on top of his spine. Then, Rowan pulled away and used his hands to lift Derrick’s head so they could look into each other’s eyes again. “I want to do it right,” he whispered.

“But…” Feeling his groin start to throb, Derrick growled a little with frustration. There was a need inside him that wanted to be satisfied, a fire that needed feeding until it could burn itself out. “We can’t get undressed.”

“Doesn’t need to be that much,” Rowan murmured back to him. “If anything happens, we’ll be able to be ready quickly. Derrick, I want to feel you. I need to feel you. I need to have something in the world be right again, even if it’s only for a few minutes.”

Derrick felt a similar need and he found himself nodding emphatically. The corners of his mouth pulled up into an amused little grin, flashing his fangs. “Only a few minutes?”

Rowan growled at him and then their lips met between them, a tender dance of tongues that quickly morphed into something much more fierce. Breathless, captivated by the press of their mouths together, Derrick let Rowan take him how he would. Rowan’s tongue slid all over the inside of his mouth, teasing, tasting, exploring.

Derrick’s dick hardened and hardened all throughout the kiss, pushing uncomfortably against his underwear as it tried to break free of its restraints. Rowan’s mouth was fierce against his, devouring him, consuming him. He was powerless against it, powerless in the arms of the other man, and he let himself be as such without argument. He was omega, meant to be taken, to be owned, to be desired, and he had never felt more of that than he did right now.

His hands roamed of their own accord, exploring Rowan’s body wherever he could reach. Part of him was frustrated about the fact that their skin couldn’t touch between layers of clothes, but the rest of him was delighted at all the new sensations flooding over him. Rough fabric rasped on his sensitive skin, slid over his body to caress him in ways that he had never before experienced. He stroked over the hard swell of Rowan’s biceps, straining the material of the shirt he wore, and trailed his hands down to hold onto Rowan’s ass through the thick denim of his jeans.

Rowan held his head in one hand, holding him in place so he could thrust his tongue ever deeper, heading towards the back of Derrick’s throat.

Derrick moaned softly, his fingers curving into claws that pressed even through Rowan’s jeans and dimpled his flesh. “Rowan….fuck….how…”

Suddenly, cold assaulted his lips as Rowan pulled his mouth away. The alpha rolled over him, supporting his weight so Derrick felt the pressure without being crushed, and grabbed something from the floor. Light caught dimly on the shape of a bottle as Rowan set it down on the mattress beside them.

“This is how,” Rowan murmured. He rose up onto his knees and undid his jeans, pulling them down just enough so he could grab his cock in his hands. Grabbing up the bottle again, he flipped the cap and squeezed out a liberal amount of the gel onto his fingers.

Derrick reached out to help spread the lube around on Rowan’s cock but was intercepted. “You do the same,” Rowan growled, low and deep in the back of his throat.

Derrick understood. Getting up on his knees, he undid his own jean zipper and popped the button open. His needy dick pressed in the way, making the procedure more difficult than it had to be, but he eventually managed it. Shoving his jeans and underwear down a few inches, he leaned over onto his hands and raised his ass up to expose his puckered opening to the cold air. He shivered, from a combination of chill and heat, and was rewarded when Rowan pressed closer to him. The swollen, thick press of Rowan’s cock between his ass cheeks did more to warm him than any amount of blankets ever would.

Rubbing his ass back against Rowan’s dick, Derrick begged to be taken. He was quickly losing control of himself, the wolf part of himself canceling out the human half. His voice was going, the ability to make words leaving him. All he could do was whine and whimper, begging and urging Rowan to take him.

It could have only been a moment or two but it felt like an eternity before he felt the hot, wet press of Rowan’s cock tip pushing against his opening. A sharp, soft cry caught in his throat and he shoved back hard, hips bucking.

Hard hands clamped on his waist, and then he felt the pressure behind him increasing, the slick length of Rowan’s cock pushing deep inside him. Raising his ass higher, Derrick bent low over his hands to make it easier for Rowan. His body was writhing with hot pleasure as Rowan filled him to the brim, stretching him, rubbing around in his most intimate places.

Their bodies strained towards each other, starting to grind and thrust. Rowan pushed inside him and Derrick pushed back, whimpering as each movement made the fire inside him burn even hotter. His muscles clenched and loosened, his body grinding hard against Rowan’s hips and his cock.

Rowan let out a low growl and started to really, truly fuck him, ramming inside him. Pushing his forehead against the mattress, Derrick replied in kind, their bodies moving as one.

The tip of Rowan’s hot, swollen organ started to ram against that burning core inside him. They were flush together, incapable of getting any closer, but still their bodies pushed closer, harder, faster. They were locked together, incapable of parting, Rowan’s thrusting gradually melding into wild, crazy grinding.

All too soon, it was more than Derrick could bear. Tossing his head back, his ass muscles tightened around Rowan’s cock, holding the both of them still as he ignited into orgasm.

The pressure of his ass around Rowan must have done the alpha in, because a deep howl rose up into the air. Derrick added his voice to the song of completion, high and pure in comparison; their vocal union ended abruptly as Rowan lunged down and clamped his teeth around the back of Derrick’s neck.

The pain was sharp and bright, a pulse of red as bright as the blood, Derrick could feel beading up from the bite wound. He cried out again, a short bark which Rowan answered, and then their thoughts collided and the world was lost to him for a short time.

There was nothing else like it in the entire world, nothing comparable to being so connected to someone else. Derrick could feel all of Rowan’s thoughts, his intentions, and knew his heart as intimately as if it was his own; he knew Rowan could feel him in the same manner. No human could ever know what this was like, to touch without touching, to bond so purely without any sort of expectations or biased assumptions. They were together, not two, but one.

Then they were falling away from each other, collapsed together on the mattress.

Derrick pushed his face against the covers, trying to focus on calming his trembling. Rowan was sprawled mostly on top of him, his pressure comforting and oh-so-wonderful.

“How was that for a few minutes?” Rowan muttered against the back of his neck.

Derrick pressed closer to his alpha, his mate. “Fucking decent,” he whispered back.

Rowan laughed softly, then enfolded Derrick into his arms. They held each other in the dark, their jeans having slipped down off their asses to bunch up around their upper thighs. Bare flesh pressed together, their limp, satisfied members touching as they tangled themselves together.

“I have something to tell you,” Rowan said.

At any other time, Derrick would have worried over what he might be about to hear; in the aftermath of their brand-new union, he had no such fears. He was satisfied, in body and in mind. Because of that, it was easy to look into his mate’s eyes and ask, “What is it?”

“I love you, Derrick.”

Tears rose up into his eyes as a result of that sweet, simple declaration. He felt as if his feelings had taken a punch directly to the stomach, and god, what a punch it was. He wanted to curl up around his heart, which was so full and joyous that it was nearly cramping. “I love you too, Rowan.”

“And there’s something else I need to tell you. It’s something I should have told you a long time ago, but I just didn’t know how. I didn’t even know if you’d believe me. But you will. Won’t you?”

“Of course!”

And he listened as Rowan told him of the well in the dark pine forest. It was impossible to believe, but he did believe it. There were stranger things in the world that had happened. Their unlikely love was one such thing.

If that was possible, anything was.