“The only good thing about the dads making us go to a human university is getting to celebrate finally being done.” Jon held up his beer with a triumphant grin. “‘And on that note, I toast to our freedom.”

“Whatever,” Lulu giggled as she held her fists to her eyes and mimed crying. “Like you guys ever let school tie you down anyway. Poor baby Jonnie… he had to go away to university and get a quality education.”

“Be nice, sweetheart. You wouldn’t have liked it if we’d been separated for a few years. It couldn’t have been easy for the trips to be away from all of us while they got their degrees,” Aurora chided her mate.

“Please.” Their other mate Lei shook her head. “I think they spent more time coming home to visit than they did in the dorms. Oh wait, the super-rich, super-powerful psychic trips didn’t have to live in a dorm. Their granddaddy bought them a nice condo to live in, remember?”

My brother, Sam, shook his head. “It wasn’t like that, and you know it, Lei. Our granddads wanted to make sure that we had privacy to shift and use our powers if we needed to, and that wouldn’t have been possible in a dorm situation.”

“Don’t defend yourself to these wenches, Sammy. Especially to Lei; she’s just jealous.” I ducked with a laugh when Lulu threw an apple core at my head in defense of her mate. Even while I teased, I kept one eye on Oni—the omega who owned my heart, even if he didn’t know it yet.

It was nice to be sitting here on the beach with a bonfire crackling and the company of my brothers and our friends—our pack, really. Our families had been close for so long, our respective parents felt we were more like a pack than anything else, despite the varied mix of shifters represented among us.

“We should tell ghost stories or something,” my cousin Faith said from where she was curled up on her mate’s lap. Phoenix nodded his agreement as he snuggled her closer.

Jude shook his head. “I don’t think any of us are capable of being frightened, so why bother? Between all of our psychic gifts, we’ve all seen some shit—especially the triplets. Hell, they’ve probably already seen this conversation play out.”

“No, although we probably could have if we’d wanted to peek into tonight’s forecast, as my brothers and I would call it. But we can’t see exact conversations and outcomes, only probabilities. Free will, you know? The future is always in flux.” I shrugged as I tried to explain what we’d already tried to describe to our friends a million times over the years.

Oni got up and started sniffing the air as he wandered around the circle. “I don’t care what we talk about or don’t talk about, I just need to figure out where that fantastic smell is coming from. Did somebody throw some eucalyptus on the fire?” He stopped and tipped his head to the side. “No, scratch that—it’s not eucalyptus, although it does have that same minty essence with a touch of honey. All I know is it smells incredible and my lion wants to roll around in it and wallow.”

I nearly swallowed my tongue when I realized what was happening. Jon and Sammy caught my eye, both of them wearing matching Cheshire cat grins. Jon got up on his knees and made a big show of sniffing the air. “I don’t know, Oni. I think what you’re smelling is…” Jon took a deep breath and smacked his lips together as if tasting the air. “Yeah, that’s definitely the scent of sweaty alpha and smegma, if you ask me.”

The rest of our group wasn’t in on the joke, so they were looking around with various degrees of confusion until they slowly started to clue in. Lulu barked out a laugh. “Smegma? Are you kidding me with that? You are such a nasty boy, Jonathan.”

“I’m lost; what are you guys talking about?” Aurora frowned at her mate.

Lulu shook her head and wrinkled her nose as she explained. “Smegma is basically a fancy word for dick cheese. It’s like this chalky, creamy, gunky stuff that gets stuck under their foreskins if they don’t clean prop—”

Aurora clapped a hand over Lulu’s mouth. “I’ve got the idea. No need to make it more colorful than needed.” She turned to look at Jon. “Why would Oni be smelling that? From the way Lulu’s talking, it certainly wouldn’t smell like mint or honey.”

Jonathan was laughing so hard he could barely get words out. “First of all, Lulu would have no idea what it smells like since she has never had any interest in cocks, clean or otherwise, but more importantly—”

“But more importantly,” Lei interrupted, “is that it’s for my brother to find out for himself. Everybody be quiet, Oni will figure it out any minute now.”

Oni stopped mid-step, about three meters away from me. “Figure what out? Wait…” He looked around the group as his eyes widened with understanding. “Oh, crap. One of you people are my mate? I guess the goddess has decided that we’re going to be just as inbred as our parents’ generation was, huh?”

Before anybody could respond, Oni turned to look at me with a relieved grin. The two of had been flirting since forever, but only I had known of our fated match. It had been hell waiting for him to find out. Oni broke into a run, closing the distance between us quickly as he tackled me down onto the sand. Straddling my hips, he held my shoulders to the ground as he leaned directly over my chest so we were face to face. “How long?”

“Excuse me?” I grinned into his wondering eyes, reaching up with a shaky hand to brush a bit of sand from his cheek. “How long what?”

I grunted when he wiggled to get comfortable and my cock took interest in the proceedings. The last thing I needed was to catch wood in front of this group—I’d never hear the end of it. Oni was practically staring into my soul with those fathomless, nearly black eyes of his.

“How long have you known?” he demanded. “All the years we’ve flirted but never gone past that point, and you knew, didn’t you? Tell me, Connor.”

“Promise you won’t be mad?” When he nodded, I took a deep breath. “For about as long as I can remember.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” Oni sat up and crossed his arms over his chest. “Did you scent me when we were kids or is this from your legacy gift? Never mind, don’t answer that. That was a stupid question. Kids don’t scent their mates, of course you knew it psychically. Still, it doesn’t seem fair that you knew and didn’t tell me. Especially when you were my first kiss! Remember that party where we played spin the bottle and you kissed me? I hope you do, because I’ve never forgotten it. You were my first kiss, my first crush, my first… well, I guess you’ll truly be my first everything.”

“He couldn’t tell you, weirdo. Don’t you get it? Just like their dads, they can’t share what they see or know until fate decrees it.” Lei made me smile as she jumped to my defense.

“Is that really why?” Oni asked in a softer voice.

“That’s exactly why,” I said with a nod. “My dads taught me from a young age that I can’t jump the gun when it comes to visions and future knowledge. It’s not for me to tell you what the fates have planned. Do you think I wanted to wait? Fuck that! It’s been hell waiting for the time to be right for you to find out. You were and are and will be my first everything too, Oni.”

His eyes were sparkling as he bent over my face again, hovering mere inches away from my lips as he spoke. “So what do we do now?”

“I bet I know what he wants to do,” Lulu cackled.

Oni rolled his eyes. “I think we should go somewhere more private, preferably with no commentary or interruptions.”

“Good luck on that one, unless you’re planning to leave the country or something. Baba is going to be all up in your business when he hears you’ve found your mate—and even more so when he hears who it is. Don’t you remember how he was when Lulu, Aurora, and I got together? It’s going to be worse for you, bro. Seriously, he’s going to want to plan a big party and everything.” Lei was laughing as she spoke.

“We could be out of Ireland in an hour; my granddads have a plane on standby that I’m welcome to use at any time.” I held my breath and mentally crossed my fingers after casually suggesting that.

Oni’s eyes were dancing with excitement. “Where would we go?”

I brought my hands up to his cheeks to brace his face, stroking my thumbs over his high, razor-sharp cheekbones as I spoke. “First give me a kiss, and then let’s go somewhere a little more private to discuss it where there aren’t any witnesses to tell our parents where we went.”

His lips were touching mine before I’d even finished my last syllable. The instant spark of static electricity had him pulling back with a wince. “Is it going to be like that every time I try to kiss you?”

“Only one way to find out.” I pulled his face down and tenderly brushed my lips over his before gently kissing him.

“Either get a room or get on the plane, but don’t you dare hump my brother right here in front of us.” Lei threw something at my leg to make us stop.

Oni reluctantly pulled away from our kiss to sit up and look over his shoulder with a glare for his sister. “Nobody invited you to watch, nosy. Go back to your sister wives and shut up.” He turned and picked up the empty water bottle that was lying beside my knee. “Seriously? You threw trash at my mate? This is war, Lei.”

Before he could move, I kept a firm grip on his hips. “No need to start a war, Mr. Feisty. No harm was done.”

“Still,” he grumbled. “It’s the principle of the thing.”

“Hush,” Lei chuckled. “Don’t get all riled up in defense of your alpha, he’s more than capable of handling himself.” She paused and spoke a little softer. “Shit. I’m sorry, I forgot how heightened emotions are when you first find your mate. You guys get out of here and I’ll try and keep Baba up off your trail as long as I can.”

Oni stood and held his hand out to help me up. I didn’t need it, but there was no way I was turning it down either. I liked that my mate was treating me as an equal and not deferring to me—I couldn’t have handled that from my omega. But then, hadn’t I known Oni long enough to know that wasn’t his style?

“This room is beautiful, but I think we’ve waited long enough, don’t you?” Oni reached behind his head to pull his shirt off by the neck and tossed it to the ground. “We had a prime opportunity to join the mile-high club, but nooo… you wanted our mating to be special. Wait until we get to Greece, he said. I promise I’ll rock your world, he said,” Oni singsonged as he teasingly threw my words from the plane back at me while continuing to strip. “I’m waiting, but my world hasn’t been rocked yet, Connor.”

“I probably shouldn’t be surprised that you aren’t shy in the bedroom, should I?” I chuckled as I pulled my own clothes off and kicked my pants aside. I crossed the room in three strides and lifted him easily, tossing him onto the bed with a growl as I followed him, crawling over his body to pin him down as I began kissing his neck.

“I’ve never been shy before, why would I start now? Is this where the world rocking commences?” He groaned as I nuzzled over his omega gland where I’d be placing my bite mark before this night was over.

“This is where our souls join and we rock each other’s worlds,” I scraped my teeth across his gland before licking across his chest and pushing my nose into his armpit to learn the different nuances of his scent.

My jaguar was pressing under the surface, wanting to explore, yet at the same time needing for me to move things along. I pushed my cat down, determined to enjoy every moment of this first time. As I licked my way down his abdomen to nuzzle the curly hairs at the base of his dick before licking across the crease of where thigh met hip, Oni impatiently writhed beneath me.

“I can think of other places where your mouth could go.” He paused, sounding a bit unsure before continuing in an almost shy voice. “At least, I’ve seen it online. You do know that this is all new for me, right? I know it’s weird at my age, but…”

Licking a long stripe back over the crease of his leg and up the length of his erect dick, I hovered over the tip and smiled up at him. “Did you seriously think this wasn’t my first time as well?”

His eyes glowed bronze as his inner lion showed itself. “Damn. And I was about to apologize for being a virginal omega at our age. I’ve never heard of an alpha waiting. You weren’t exaggerating about me being your first everything! I like that we get to be each other’s first, last, and only.”

“Not that I want to talk about my fathers right now, but they waited, and so did I. When you already know who your mate is, it would be cheating to touch another. All I could do was wait for you.” I swirled my tongue around the tip of his dick and sucked it into my mouth while I stared into his eyes. To finally be able to taste, to touch, to enjoy what was mine? This was heaven.

Oni lifted up on his elbows, watching me with interest. He bit into his plump lower lip, his pupils dilated with need as a rumbling purr filled the room and the light patch of hair on his chest began to quiver from the vibration. “I love that you waited for me.” His soft smile turned devilish as one side of his mouth curved into a smirk. “I bet you have a really strong right forearm though, am I right?”

I pulled away from his dick before I choked when I began laughing. “I must not be very good at this whole oral thing if you can lie there and talk shit.” I sat back onto my knees, shaking my head as I absently stroked my cock. “Were you purring? I can’t wait to cuddle you later and rest my head on your chest while you purr for me.”

His cheeks pinked up as he began to blush. “Yeah, but don’t give me shit. I’m sure you purr too. The curse of being a cat shifter, am I right? I’ve always said that it’s not fair that our animal counterparts don’t purr in the wild but we do in shifted form. It’s kind of embarrassing, in my opinion.”

“No, it’s kinda awesome, if you ask me. I don’t have to wonder if you’re content or happy if you’re purring, and the same goes for me. I like that some of the guesswork is taken out of things.” My nostrils flared as I spoke when Oni’s soft lilac scent grew stronger, its fragrance filling the air.

When I saw slick leaking between his legs, I stretched my hand down and ran it over his hole to scoop a fingerful. Oni’s eyes grew wide as I brought my finger to my lips and sucked it clean. He spread his legs wider, pulling his knees up to give me a better view. “If you wanted to taste, all you had to do was ask—or take—that works too.”

I growled low in my throat as I bent to answer his invitation. Pushing his legs farther back, I held his thighs in the palms of my hands as I lapped the leaking juices. Oni wasn’t the only one purring at this point. My entire body was vibrating as my cat and I both reveled in the taste of our mate. I couldn’t take any more, I had to have him.

Lifting my head, I paused to grind my face against his abdomen to wipe the slick glaze from my chin before I slowly prowled over his body on all fours like my jaguar wanted. I didn’t stop until my thighs were flush against the backs of his legs and the head of my cock was nudging against his hole.

Oni stretched his fingers out like claws to grip my chest, sinking his fingernails into my flesh as I braced my hands on either side of his shoulders and gently began to push my way inside the heat of his body.

He sucked in a breath, his eyes fluttering closed as he winced. “Are you okay?” I paused halfway in, not wanting to continue if I was hurting him, but also not ready to stop now that we were this close to mating.

“I will be, unless you stop, that would suck.” His eyes popped open as he groaned and caught my eye. “Chill. Yeah, it hurts a little—but it’s like this good burn that I know is going to feel really good if you just keep going.”

“That makes sense,” I nodded. “I think I was supposed to loosen you a little more before getting right to it.”

Oni looked like he was caught somewhere between irritation and amusement as he dug his fingernails deeper into my chest and gave a gentle, testing rock of his hips. “Less talking, more claiming. I think that would be best, don’t you?”

I bit my lip to keep from laughing at my adorable mate and focused on slowly sinking the rest of the way into his welcoming heat. Once I was fully rooted inside him, I bent to kiss his soft lips while I fought to hold myself still and not move just yet. Not only did I need him to relax, but I knew if I moved even a fraction, it would be over before it began. When Oni rocked his hips again as he moaned into my mouth, I knew he was ready.

Keep it calm, Connor. Don’t blow your load too soon. You’ve got this, bro…

I gave myself a pep talk as I slowly thrust in and out while we kissed. Oni’s hands moved around to my sides and over my back, his fingernails clawing at my skin as I picked up speed.

My hips pumped a little faster, driving in deeper with every stroke. Our bodies were so close together that I felt the steel of his erection grinding against my rippled abdomen. When we both began to purr, Oni broke our kiss and began thrashing his head from side to side.

“It’s too much! But not enough… I need more…” Digging his hands into the muscles of my back, Oni held me tightly against him. He panted against my ear as I nipped at his neck. “The vibrations… our purrs… holy shit… my poor dick.”

It took me a second to realize what he was talking about and a laugh rumbled out of my throat before I realized it was coming. The vibrations of our purring were adding to the friction against his trapped dick. “How about if I do this.” I pulled out nearly all the way then slammed back into him with a hard thrust. “Does that help?”

“More,” Oni panted. “Yessss… more of that.”

My cock started to tingle and I nearly came as erotic jolts shot up my spine the next time his hole rubbed against my cock as I pulled out. My cock felt like it was growing impossibly larger and I had to put more force behind the next thrust as I pushed back in.

Goosebumps broke out all over my body and my vision went white as another string of erotic tingles shot from my cock and up my spine before spreading over my body like liquid fire. “Hold on, babe. My cock feels weird,” I gasped as I lifted up and pulled out.

Oni lifted onto his elbows and craned his neck to get a better look as I leaned on my arm and hip to cradle my cock in the palm of my hand as we both stared at it in wonder. His voice was reverent as my mate spoke just above a whisper. “Holy shit, is that the infamous knotting vortex that only appears between true mates?”

He sat all the way up to touch one of the nubbins that were spiraling in a row around my cock from root to just under the head. “Those look like nipples.” He glanced up curiously as he rubbed the tip of his finger over one of the nubbins. “They feel like nipples too. It’s weird, but cool. And in a good way, you know?”

“You’re telling me.” My voice cracked at the end in a high-pitched squeak. I shook my head. “Fucking hell, you try having sex while pushing a nipple-covered cock into a tight hole that’s trying to squeeze the cum out of you. I honestly think I almost died for a second there.”

Oni lifted an elegant brow as he gripped my shoulders to pull me along with him as he lay back down. “But what a way to go, right? Now get back in my ass and claim me with that specially textured cock. Talk about something being ribbed for my pleasure,” he quipped as I carefully pushed my way back into his tight heat.

When Oni pulled my head down for a kiss, I wrapped my arms around him, holding him snugly against me as I rocked into him. This time when the electric jolts moved along my cock and up my spine, I knew what was happening and just kept going. As pain morphed to pleasure, my entire body felt like one big erogenous zone.

Hold on, Connor. Don’t come yet. You can do it.

My pep talk came to an abrupt end when I realized that my cock was lodged completely inside Oni’s ass. When I tried to pull out, the nubbins clung to the walls of his channel like Velcro, latching on and locking us together in my feline version of a knot. I broke our kiss and pressed my forehead against his as I gritted my teeth and tried to hold on just that much longer. But when Oni’s purring increased, his entire body began vibrating to the point that the silky walls of his channel throbbed against my knotting vortex.

“Fuck… I can’t…” Oni’s fingernails were like sharp spikes when he dug them into my shoulder blades as his entire body tensed. His vibrating ass clenched tight around my aching cock and that was all it took. I threw my head back with a roar as I began to come. My teeth were already elongating as I jerked my head to the side and went right for his neck.

Sinking my teeth into the gland that sat in the soft spot at the juncture where neck met shoulder, I felt Oni’s answering bite on my own gland as his dick shot a hot geyser of cum between our vibrating abdomens. The coppery taste of his blood covered my tongue, and the scent of lilacs perfumed my nose again while I had a trippy out-of-body experience.

For a moment there, it was as if we’d switched bodies and I didn’t know where I ended and he began. I was both the vibrating ass and the fat cock with the knotting vortex that was teasing the walls of my channel. I was Oni and Oni was me as our worlds collided and we merged into one. Once I was fully encased in my own reality again, I released my teeth and licked his bite mark clean with my healing saliva.

With my mate firmly claimed, I turned to kiss him again as I rolled us over onto my back before I did something stupid like going limp and passing out on top of his smaller frame. When I heard Oni’s voice clearly say “ouch” in my head, my eyes popped open as I jerked my lips away from his. “Did you just speak to me telepathically?”

Fuck yeah, I did. His eyes twinkled as he sent his thoughts to me instead of speaking aloud. This is a neat parlor trick to add to your repertoire of psychic gifts. I didn’t know we’d be able to speak silently. This is cool.

I shook my head and answered him mentally. I think this is just specific between us. But I agree, it’s cool. In fact, I like it almost as much as I like your vibrobutt.

My what? His eyes were laughing as a slow grin spread over his face.

I’ve heard cat omegas called vibrobutts before and I never got it until just now. Your purring is making your ass vibrate, and it’s fucking awesome. I took a breath and tried not to pass out from the overwhelming sensations that already had my cock hard again.

Oh, yeah? He lifted a brow and gave his hips a slight wiggle. It was just enough to make me see stars and start coming again. Before I could say anything, Oni’s lips were sealed over mine and hot cum was spilling between our abdomens once more.

“Remind me again why we’re spending the day taking a tour around the ancient ruins and temples instead of staying in bed?” Oni pouted and coquettishly fluttered his eyelashes at me as we walked hand in hand up the marble steps of a large temple dedicated to the bear goddess herself, Artio. After everything our pack had experienced on her behalf at the time of our births, Oni and I had felt it was important to pay homage to her while we were in Greece.

“Because you took one whiff of yourself in the shower this morning and decided that a pregnant omega needed food and activities outside of the bedroom,” I reminded him as I lifted his hand to my lips to kiss his knuckles.

Oni smiled happily as we walked into the temple. “I know, I remember. I just wanted to hear you say it out loud again. I can’t believe we got pregnant on our first time out, yet our friends and family who mated before us haven’t gotten pregnant yet. My sister is going to be super pissed.”

“Try not to sound so happy about that, sugarplum.” I gave his butt a light smack as he passed me to light a candle at the altar.

Oni looked over his shoulder with a playful glare. “Let’s not have any spanking or talk of my tight sugar plums while we’re in the goddess’ temple.”

I licked my lips. “I wasn’t talking about your sugar plums, although I wouldn’t mind sucking on those right about now. I was calling you sugarplum because you’re sweet and completely mine. Plus, I need to figure out the perfect thing to call you that’s just for us. ‘Babe’ and ‘hon’ are too generic.”

Oni rolled his eyes with a pleased smile as he turned to take my arm and lead me away from the altar. We made our way through the crowd of bear shifters who’d made a pilgrimage to pay homage to their goddess.

I hadn’t been paying particular attention to the other tourists, so I froze in surprise when a familiar-looking blond Fae stepped into my path. Then I said, “Hello, Easton. Nice to finally see you in person. Does this mean it’s time?”