"Holy shit, Aver, that was—"
I wasn't finished. Though I didn't enjoy cutting him off, that first orgasm had only left my dick throbbing and left me nowhere near able to speak calmly. I moved his hips, pumping my own to drive me harder and deeper. I felt possessed, like a demon. Hollister had been right all along.
Now that I'd gotten a taste of how good this felt, I couldn't stop. I roared, unable to vocalize beyond primal grunts and growls. My balls tightened at the exact same moment Hollister bit down on the soft spot where my shoulder met my neck.
I didn't think he knew how much of a shifter thing that was to do, but it was exactly what I needed to push me into the abyss a second time. His teeth held on as I unloaded everything I had. But it was more than ejaculate that I let go. It felt like a door had been opened, one that had locked so long ago I'd forgotten that door was even there.
When I looked back into Hollister's face, it was like seeing him for the first time. I pushed his hair back, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "I love you, mate." My hips continued to pump, though there wasn't more to give. "I love you, Hollister."
Hollister smiled a tired, content sort of smile. "That's good," he whispered. "Because I love you too." He let his head drop, clearly exhausted from our lovemaking.
Already, my cock swelled for a third time, but my pet was tired. And I could afford to at least let him have a nap before going again. I lifted him from me, setting him on the mattress beside me where he quickly snuggled into my side.
"We need to clean you up, pet," I whispered, smiling at how much he looked like a kitten, curled up after a long day. The ejaculate would cool along with his skin, and I didn't want him getting cold.
"I don't want to," he said with his eyes closed. "Let me keep you in me, on me, just a little longer. Please."
Who was I to say no to that?
***
I'd waited for Hollister to fall asleep before slipping out of bed and getting a warm washcloth. While he slept, I cleaned his body gently, making sure he wouldn't wake up a sticky, flaky mess. He never budged, not even to sleep talk, so when I was finished, I let him be and went out to the kitchen for a glass of water.
Out the front window, a shadow sprinted by. We had bears, coyotes, and bobcats up here, but I didn't think the shadow was any of those things. It had moved like a shifter.
At once, the warm contentment I'd found in the bedroom disappeared. My mate was asleep and relied on me to keep him safe. I turned off the lights, stalking to the side door. For a few minutes, nothing happened.
I flung the door open, running and shifting in the same moment. I hit my mark, and the body beneath me fell hard as I found its throat with my jaws.
"Aver!" Branson's voice was one of the only things that could've kept my jaws from snapping closed.
I jumped off and shifted. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Branson scowled at me, rubbing his neck and shoulder. "Fuck man, you almost killed me."
Branson's voice may have brought me from my rage, but his presence here in my sanctuary had the opposite effect. Especially with my mate sleeping inside. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Oh, I don't know, coming to talk to you after I had to hear from Paul that you went to your parents tonight? What the fuck is that about? I thought we agreed if we had to go to pack lands, we'd go together."
For the most part, that had been the rule, but I wasn't going to ask Branson's permission when the situation had changed. "It was just a dinner. I came out."
"Fuck," he whispered, though, beneath the confusion, I heard pride. He'd been wanting me to come clean to my parents for decades, but only because he had seen how much trying to please them messed with me. "How'd it go?"
I shrugged, cocking my head to the side as I focused on the sound of Hollister's steady breathing. "Hollister was amazing. My parents were… my mom was how I expected. But my dad is…"
"Up to something," Branson finished for me.
I didn't disagree, but that was exactly why I couldn't hide what I'd agreed to. "He wants to throw us a mating party."
Branson started to laugh, but it died when he saw I wasn't joining him.
"It would be good for the pack. I plan on taking over the planning so there will be no surprises."
"You already failed on that account," Branson snarled. "What is going on with you, man? I get you keeping stuff from your parents, but us? Me? I had no idea what you did when you went into Seattle."
None of them had; that was the entire point. But Branson had always been the cousin I was closest to, both growing up on pack lands and after. I didn't mean to hurt him, but I hadn't seen Branson as someone who could understand what I'd been going through. He'd always been out, proudly, and had no trouble telling his mother what she could do with any opinion she had on his sexuality. And then he'd found Riley, and it seemed like his life had truly come together.
Of course I hadn't wanted to share my pitiful problems with him. Since I couldn't go back in time and confide in Branson, I focused on the thing I could change. "The pack shouldn't suffer because our parents are assholes."
"Each person in the pack is free to leave. If they stay, that's their own choice."
I stared at Branson, wondering when he'd turned into someone I didn't know. "Is that really how you feel?"
He crossed his arms. "Abso-fucking-lutely."
I clenched my jaw. "Then we disagree."
His eyes widened with brief surprise. "I guess we do."
I wasn't the same Aver to him, that much I understood. That Aver had been agreeable, even when it went against his own thoughts and opinions. "Every one of you were given a moment to present your mate to the pack. And yet you want to deny me mine, after everything?"
"That isn't the same, and you know it. We had to, to keep our mates safe. You just want to flaunt your—"
My fist moved, colliding with his chin. I barely felt the impact. In almost forty years of knowing each other, I'd never once hit Branson out of anger. We'd wrestled, but even then, I almost always conceded or lost. But, when it had sounded like Branson was disrespecting Hollister, I'd seen red.
I tensed, preparing for a retaliation that never came.
Branson stood several feet away, rubbing his chin as he growled in a low continuous hum. "I'm going now. I want you to think about the people who have been in your life since the beginning. The people you respected and trusted… at least, I thought you did. I don't know what kind of person you are anymore."
He didn't wait for my reply. I didn't know what to tell him. I was still the same person. The same shifter. But parts of me had changed. Branson and the others had accepted who I'd been when I'd been miserable, why couldn't they accept me now that I was happy?
Chapter Ten
Hollister
"Hold still," I said, frowning as Aver continued to move. If I didn't have a huge razor against his throat, I wouldn't have cared. Aver had been letting his beard grow since I'd told him I liked the roughness of his bristly facial hair against my skin.
He'd agreed to let me manscape the curly dark blond hairs, but now he was doing everything he could to get me to cut his throat.