Page 4 of Harvest

Damian stopped his restless pacing and looked him straight in the eye.

“You don’t really think of yourself as a freak, do you?”

Xander smiled. Damian might be a sonofabitch, but he was a good alpha and cared about those he led.

“Sometimes, but it’s okay, I’m a Dom so I long ago accepted I was a bit of a freak.”

Damian relaxed. “I had planned to tell you everything and offer to turn you, but when you took that bullet through your lung, I ran out of time. The only choice was turn you without your consent or let you die… and I wasn’t willing to do that.”

“I know. As I said, I am grateful. Not only did you change my DNA, but you also changed my life. You gave me a home and a family, a job and a purpose in life. I owe you in ways too numerous to count. And speaking of getting a purpose in life…has the last of our errant surfer girls decided to settle down and behave?”

Xander had been in the city the night that two of their unmated she-wolves decided to go surfing… at night… in a storm. One of the pair had taken her punishment to heart, settled down and was now happily mated. The other, Shasta, continued to be an issue. She was defiant, unruly and had a sensuality that called to many a male wolf.

Damian growled. “They could have gotten themselves killed. When we fished them out of the water, we pumped about ten gallons of sea water out of them. When I questioned their decision-making process…”

“That’s you trying to be charming, right? You didn’t question anything. They scared the shit out of you and so you bellowed at them…”

“And their response was to get mouthy and disrespectful.”

“I’m not saying they didn’t deserve to be punished. Being spanked by their alpha and grounded to the estate’s main area was exactly what I would have done. Nobody, other than Shasta, thinks you went overboard. She’s bitched about it and has let it be known that getting spanked by her alpha was not something she wanted to experience again.”

Damian smiled grimly. “And she’s managed to avoid that, although I know you’ve had to get after her a couple of times since then.”

Damian walked to the window and looked out over the grape vines toward the sea.

“Nevertheless, you still need a mate.”

Damian looked back at him and rolled his eyes before turning back. “Give it a rest, Xander,” he said softly. “I’m too busy for a mate. The winery is just starting to make real money. We’re having to take fewer and fewer mercenary jobs. For the record… fuck it, it doesn’t matter.”

“What, Damian? What doesn’t matter?” Xander said, sensing he might be close to finding out what lay beneath Damian’s reticence.

For all his strength, courage, and honor, his alpha was an enigma to all of them. He was so integral to the health, happiness, and prosperity of their pack, but something about Damian always seemed to elude everyone.

“Promise me you won’t laugh.”

“We both know I can’t promise that, but I can promise to keep it between us.”

“You’re an asshole, Xander,” Damian chortled. “Remind me why it is I saved your sorry ass?”

“Because I’m the asshole who will always have your back, I’ve been your second-in-command for as long as either of us can remember, and you couldn’t do without me.”

Damian turned back at him and smiled. “You aren’t wrong.”

“So, what is it, Damian?”

Xander usually wasn’t one to press his oldest and best friend, but he sensed this time, he might actually get to the root of the problem.

Once Xander accepted Damian’s decision to save his life, he realized his life and worldview had been changed forever. He had been startled to learn the similarities and differences between human and shifter societies. The wolves had maintained a male dominant hierarchy with she-wolves having less autonomy than their male counterparts. Most curious had been learning that in the last vestiges of their lupine ancestors, male alpha wolf-shifters could, in their human state, form a knot at the base of their cock. At least monthly, they were driven to breech their mates with it, flooding them with their seed and then being tied to them for hours.

Damian shook his head. “Foolish as it may sound, I have no desire to form a bonded pair with anyone other than my fated mate.”

“How will you find her if you don’t look?”

Damian smiled ruefully. “Sometimes I forget you weren’t born wolf. It isn’t a question of meeting someone and as you get to know them you figure it out. It’s more like being hit over the head with the realization the first time you encounter it. Male wolves are born with the aroma of their fated mate in their nostrils. From the moment you scent it, you know. There is a primal urge to mark and claim her. And for an alpha the need to allow a knot to form so you can breach her with it and tie her to you is almost untenable.”

“You alphas and your damn knots. They sound like a lot more trouble than they’re worth.”

“Could be.”

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