Gabriel

 “Is it just me or is this room really warm?” Noah asked suddenly.

“It seems fine to me,” I said, not looking up from my laptop. “Did you want to turn the temperature down on the thermostat? It’s the same it’s always been, though.”

“No, that’s okay,” Noah replied, moving around in the armchair restlessly.

I didn’t pay much attention at the time. I just thought maybe he was going stir-crazy being cooped up in the palace.

It was getting difficult for either of us to go out without being besieged by reporters and paparazzi, who seemed to be able to find us no matter what. Zara was tearing her hair out trying to find the source of the leak, and Mama was going around threatening anyone she thought could be responsible, to no avail.

It just kept happening. So the only solution they could think of was to keep us in the palace except for tightly scheduled interviews and photo ops. Which made it a lot easier for our security guards to handle the crowds, but it made us bored and itching to get out.

Strangely, though, I’d thought spending almost every hour of the day together might make me sick of Noah or the other way around, but I just felt more and more comfortable around him. Which just added weight to my slowly-burning suspicion that I was developing feelings for him. Which would be very bad.

Or would it? I was somehow convinced that having a crush on Noah would be a negative thing, but I couldn’t quite think of reasons to convince myself.

Instead, I would look at him accidentally when he was laughing with his head thrown back, or biting his lip in concentration and doing the crossword in the mornings—seriously, he did the crossword, what a nerd—or checking his email for pictures of his cat, and felt my chest clench with something that felt foreign to me.

Maybe that was what longing felt like.

“Do you think it’ll be cooler in the garden?” he said.

“Probably not,” I replied. “It’s the middle of the afternoon, it’s going to be sunny and hot.”

“Damn,” he said softly.

“Look, let me turn the temperature down,” I insisted, and passed him on my way to the thermostat on the wall. As I did, I caught a whiff of something—a scent, a delicious scent that filled my head and made me feel slightly foggy and dazed.

“Are…you going to change the temperate?” Noah asked expectantly, breaking me out of my daze.

“What?” I said, mouth open and staring at him stupidly, “Oh—yeah, right.”

“Are you sure the thermostat’s working?” Noah asked after a few minutes.

“Pretty sure, yeah,” I said, teeth chattering. It was significantly colder than it had been before, and I was going to need to wrap myself in a blanket soon, because my thin t-shirt wasn’t going to cut it.

“That’s weird,” he sighed. “I’m still so warm.”

“Maybe you’re sick?” I asked, concerned.

I felt worry flood my chest. If Noah was sick, if it was something serious—but then, we had the best doctors in the country in the palace, I assured myself, forcing my heartrate to go down. He couldn’t have gotten anything serious in the past few days, surely?

“I guess I could be,” he sighed. “I got my flu shot and everything before I came here, though. And I had to have a bunch of vaccinations before I could come here, so I can’t imagine what it could be.”

“Do you think you’re running a fever?”

Noah pressed his hand to his forehead and neck.

“I…don’t think so,” he said cautiously. “It’s more of a feeling under my skin, if you know what I mean.”

“Right,” I said, although I didn’t. “Well, if it’s still there in a couple of hours, we’re calling the doctor, all right?”

“Fine,” Noah said, rolling his eyes. “But I’m sure it’s nothing. You’re acting worse than a mother hen.”

“Well, someone has to because you won’t take care of yourself.” I snapped.

Noah raised his eyebrows at me haughtily.

“Actually, I’ve been taking care of myself for twenty two years now,” he said coolly. “So I think I’ll still live without your help, my Prince.”

“Okay, there’s no need to call me by my title just because you’re mad.”

“I’m not mad, I just think you’re telling me that I can’t take care of myself, which isn’t true!”

“I don’t think you can’t take care of yourself,” I said, my patience running thin, “I just think you won’t.”

“Ugh, let’s not fight about this,” he said, turning away.

“Fine,” I said coldly, and we ignored each other for an hour.

“Hey guys,” Lucas said, entering the room.

“Hey,” we murmured, still not looking at each other.

“Everything okay?” he asked, raising an eyebrow and looking between us.

“Oh, fine,” Noah said sarcastically, “Except Gabriel doesn’t think I can take care of myself, and he thinks I need an alpha to tell me what to do.”

“That…doesn’t sound like him,” Lucas said carefully, looking at me.

“That wasn’t at all what I said!” I said indignantly. “Look, Noah’s sick and he’s refusing to go to the doctor—“

“—because I’m not sick, and I don’t appreciate you telling me what to do like I’m your property—“

“Um, guys,” Lucas said, breaking in, “I think you’re missing something kind of obvious here.”

“We are?”

“Yeah. I might have a guess as to what’s wrong with you, Noah. You said you’re feeling sick?”

“I don’t know if I’m sick, exactly,” he said, “I just feel kind of hot and sweaty…”

“When was the last time you took your suppressants?” Lucas asked.

Noah’s jaw dropped and he met my surprised eyes and colored furiously.

“I—may have completely forgotten to bring them with me to Merovia,” he said in a small voice.

“Noah…are you in heat?” I asked carefully.

“I don’t know!” he said helplessly. “I’ve only been in heat once, when I was eighteen, and I don’t remember a whole lot about it!”

“Only once in four years?” I asked, concerned. “Were you taking suppressants for all that time?”

“Yeah,” he said, looking embarrassed. “I couldn’t afford to check myself into a heat therapy center…”

I met Lucas’s concerned eyes from across the room.

This was bad. If Noah hadn’t been in heat in four years, that would mean that this time it would last for hours, maybe days, unless he found an alpha to help him through it. If he’d had them regularly he could have gotten by with toys and shutting himself in his room until it passed.

But that was no longer an option.

And it was starting to affect me as well, I realized, inhaling his scent hungrily. It had grown stronger, maybe because I was in the room, his body sensing a dominant presence that could provide a counterpoint to its submissive pheromones.

“What do I do?” he asked us, wringing his hands.

“You should go to your room now,” Lucas said instantly. I clenched my fists, and tried for some control. I could feel my incisors sharpening, prompting me to suck a bite into Noah’s exquisite, graceful neck.

“I’ll come with you,” I said hoarsely.

“What?” Lucas and Noah both said at once, Lucas confused and Noah hopeful.

“Would you…?” Noah said, leaving his sentence unfinished.

“Yeah,” I said, swallowing with difficulty. I was already half-hard from the scent of his arousal. It was begging me to touch him, to take him apart slowly until he was begging to be fucked…

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Lucas objected.

A growl issued involuntarily from my throat. He was trying to prevent me from mating Noah. I’d kill him before I let anyone else touch Noah.

The dominant alpha part of me had entirely taken control. I no longer had the ability to act rationally. The only thing that clearly stood out for me was a desire to have Noah, here and now.

Noah was panting, looking at me with a glazed expression. His pupils dilated when he saw my cock hardening under my trousers.

“Lucas,” he said faintly, “You should probably leave.”

“What--?”

“Now,” we said, gazes sharpening on him.

“All right!” he said, raising his hands in surrender.

“And lock the door behind you,” I added.

I barely waited for the snick of the lock behind him before I rushed to Noah, hungrily kissing him and running my hands all over his body.

He was warm, so warm, like a furnace, sweet and hot and begging me to give him what only I could.

“Gabriel,” he groaned, opening his mouth, deliciously helpless and willing as I slipped my tongue in, roaming his velvety interior.

“Tell me what you want,” I growled, parting from him, holding him by the shoulders. He moaned at the loss of my touch, leaning towards me, but I didn’t let him any closer.

“Tell me,” I said forcefully.

“I want you,” he said, panting. “I want everything from you—your cock in me, in my mouth, in my ass, I want you to knot me so good—“

“You want it so bad,” I groaned, hips thrusting involuntarily at his words, at his needy expression and the flush on his face. And his scent—that was the most distracting thing of all. He smelled like spiced vanilla, and of something else—something more primal, that called to my blood and made it rise in answer.

“Only you can give it to me,” he answered.

I slipped two fingers into his mouth tenderly, and watched him suck on them eagerly.

The next couple of moments were a blur—when my senses returned, we were both unclothed and I was on top of him. I had pushed him back on the couch, and he was lying down. My cock was pressed against his hip and he was rubbing against it eagerly.

The slick slide of his fever-hot skin against my cock made me hard as iron. My cock throbbed almost painfully as I drank in the sight of the vulnerable, smooth hollow of his throat and his pink nipples, peaked from my touch.

I latched onto his throat with my sharpened incisors and bit. Noah’s scent immediately ripened, growing submissive and sweet, welcoming his alpha.

His legs fell apart, begging me to touch and caress his slick hole. I stroked his trembling thigh comfortingly, moving up to the swell of his ass.

“Gabriel,” he choked, pupils blown.

I licked his throat, caressed the bruise I’d made with my tongue, making him shudder. With one finger I pushed questioningly into his hole. He arched up, his back taut like a bowstring. He hole was dripping wet, he thrust his hips up trying to bring my finger deeper inside him, to get some friction to soothe his achingly empty hole.

“All right, I got you,” I said, pushing two more fingers in. His hole sucked them in greedily. My fingers weren’t enough, even though he moaned and sobbed helplessly as I fucked him rough and slow on them.

His cock grew hard and red even without me touching him. It dripped shiny precome, forming a small puddle on his belly that I spread around messily, making him squirm.

I was hardly aware of my own erection even in its near-painful state, I was too busy being fascinated by Noah’s responsiveness to my touch. I remembered that he’d said he was a virgin…my hunger increased when I realized I was going to be the first alpha to ever have him, spread out like this and entirely at my mercy.

And I would be the only one, if I had it my way.

That possessive thought made me swiftly hook his legs over my shoulders—Noah was really fantastically flexible—and his body curved in a perfect comma-shape, perfect for my cock to nudge at his hole tantalizingly.

 “Gabriel,” he said, sounding dazed.

“Shh,” I said, running my hand along his flank, and entered him with one, long, smooth thrust.

“Oh,” he whimpered, eyes wide and shocked at the intrusion. He’d never had anyone’s cock in him before.

The thought spurred me on, made me want to give him the best orgasm of his life. I pulled out roughly and thrust back in deep enough that he kept making quiet, whimpery sounds. I knew I hit his prostate when he squeaked in surprise, clawing at my arms suddenly.

“Do—do that again!” he said, the muscles on his stomach jumping from the electric shock of pleasure that had bolted through his body. The only sounds were from Noah, and from bare skin slapping against bare skin.

I did, pulling back and thrusting in at the perfect angle to hit his sweet spot, every single time. I reached down and took his cock in my hand—it was long and curved well, and fit perfectly in my fist—and began pumping it up and down, reveling in the friction of my bare skin against his.

It felt like I had barely touched him when he came, body curving and shouting in surprise as he came. It looked almost painful, judging from his screwed up face of confused pleasure.

I kissed him, sloppy and open and wet, gasping myself as I felt him clenching around me.

“Is that—is that good?” he asked, noticing my reaction. He clenched again experimentally.

“You’re going to kill me,” I growled, grabbing his hips to keep him still. I wanted to prolong this for as long as possible, but it was too late. Noah’s tight clench had wrapped around my cock almost like a vice, and I was spurting come into his ass.

“I’m gonna fill you up,” I said into the nape of his neck, now covered with a sheen of sweat. He shivered.

“I feel really full,” he said, awed. “Wait—what’s that?” he cried out in surprise as I began to swell inside him.

“It’s my knot,” I said, “It’s holding us together…it’s going to milk me for a while.”

“It’s…so big,” he said, sounding awed. “It’s too big, Gabriel,” he said, looking at me anxiously. “I feel like I’m going to fly apart.”

“You can take it,” I said, pressing kisses onto his face and neck tenderly. “You took my cock so sweetly. You can take my knot too.”

He subsided, but I could see that it was uncomfortable for him, at least initially. For me, it was almost overwhelming. Noah was hot on the inside—like summer itself, plush and pink and warm. It almost seemed like sacrilege to violate his body with my knot, but there was no stopping it.

I could feel it grow, the swell and how Noah’s walls struggled to accommodate it. We were both panting by the time it grew to its full size. Noah’s breathing grew easier, and I squeezed his shoulder.

“All right?” I said, nipping his neck reassuringly.

“Yeah,” he said, smiling at me hesitantly. “That was—“

“Kind of mind-blowing?” I finished.

He laughed shakily. “Yeah,” he admitted, “I wasn’t sure if it was the same for you.”

“Oh, it was,” I said fervently, “Believe me. Come here, get comfortable now. This is going to take a while.”

We gingerly moved him so he was cradled in my arms, as he hissed every time he moved at a strange angle.

“All right?” I repeated, stoking his back.

“Yeah,” he said sleepily, tired and content like a kitten. I could feel my chest flooding with the protectiveness of an alpha who’d just mated his omega for the first time.

The knot was to keep my come inside him, I knew, to increase the chances of getting him pregnant. Not that it was likely, on the first try.

“Go to sleep,” I said, hooking my chin over his shoulder.

And he did.