Page 20 of Omega Haunting

“I’m close,” the words tumbled off my lips despite it being obvious over our newly open true-mate link.

Letting go of my ass with one hand, Marsin wrapped his big fist around my dick and stroked me in time with our hips moving. I saw stars and the room spun as orgasm shook me from the roots of my hair down to my toes. Everything inside me exploded – warm, slick, and devouring my thoughts one by one until nothing or no one except Marsin and I existed. He thrust up into me again and again as I writhed on top of him. His dick shook inside me and he thrust again – once, twice, three more times before the proof of his pleasure exploded in a shower of warm sticky streams inside me. I bit my lip and leaned downagainst him again. He kissed me hard as our hips rocked until not another drop of pleasure was left inside either of us.

Chapter Ten

Marsin

I didn’t think about Dern much over the next month. Yes, a month. That was how long our matingmoon lasted. From the second we exchanged our claiming vows, Astral and I were inseparable. Instead of easing the pull and tug of the magic it was as if it grew more demanding than ever. Any time Astral wasn’t within my reach there was a physical ache in the pit of my stomach. He experienced much the same thing, and we put it off as just another symptom of being true-mates. Besides, we’d spent too long apart already before we met in this lifetime. Our matingmoon was meant to be spent attached at the hip.

And that’s how we stayed, falling into an easy rhythm of living together. There was a learning curve to living with a furry shifter. More than once I woke up with Astral howling over our mating link that I had trapped him in the middle of the night. In my sleep, I’d curl around him and my dragon would bring out his wings, trapping him in a cocoon until I woke up to set him free.

We cooked our meals together and shared in the chores. With only a few components from home, brought over by my brother, I was able to build a computer worthy of the name and kept up with the ongoings on Starscale 1. I taught Astral a few things here and there and I helped him carry stills around and prepare to cast his spells. Still, we were each other’s favorite distractions. Sometimes in the middle of a task we had to stop to touch, kiss, or make love right there on the spot. There was no getting away from it – no denying that constant need for him. Sometimes the hunger for his body all but consumed me.

His family was good about keeping us in snacks and meal prep until we were ready to venture out on our own. Once wedid, I kept a hand or arm on Astral everywhere we went. I held him tight, sometimes leaving behind big fingerprints in his flesh. If he minded, he never spoke up. His energy never protested over our mating link either.

By the second week of our matingmoon, we started taking long walks in the woods together. Out there on our own, I’d stretch my wings anytime we found a clearing and more often than not, Astral would strip naked and shift into his grey wolf and race ahead, running up and down the path stretching his furry legs. His tail wagged high in the air, making it easy to keep an eye on him. And yes, we made love in the woods too. I had him there in the trees and in fields of wild flowers. We took turns worshiping each other’s bodies and filled the woods with the sounds of our pleasure. Somewhere along the way in trying to find my mate and every other dragon’s mate, I forgot what it was like to stop trying so hard and to just live my fucking life. I’d never felt more alive than I had out in the woods with Astral.

It was late in the evening and the earth was about to gobble up the sun again for the night. Astral and I walked back toward town hand in hand. His fit perfectly in mine as if we were made for each other.

“I told you it would take time!” Someone growled and swore under their breath.

Astral and I froze on the path, our heads turning in time together toward the thicket of branches blocking the speaker. The voice was almost familiar enough for me to identify---

“Dern?” Astral called out when no one answered the old wolf. “Dern? Buddy, you alright in there? Who are you with?”

Nothing. Silence rang out through the woods and Astral dropped my hand. I swore under my breath and snatched his up again before he was out of reach.

“Careful. We don’t know who he’s with,”I warned over our mating link.

“That’s exactly why we need to check on him!”Astral said.“Now, either come with me or let me go!”

I blinked at my snarling mate. He’d never protested me keeping him safe before. What had changed?

“For the love of squirrel nuts, Marsin,”Astral sighed over our mating link.“Nothing’s changed. You can keep me safe. You just have to come along with me. Keeping me safe isn’t keeping me from living. Besides, what sort of wolf would I be if I left an elderly pack member out in the elements all by himself?”

I bit my tongue and shut down my side of the mating link as I followed Astral off the path. It was better that my mate didn’t hear my thoughts about Dern. That wolf was nothing but trouble but there was no one to tell that to here. No one to tell that I thought the wolf still did dark magic and had somehow pulled Astral and I into his web when he cast that spell on the apple from Morgi’s.

“Dern?” Astral called out again.

“What?!” Dern snapped. “Who’s there? Ast? Is that you?”

“It’s me, Dern. What are you doing out here and who are you yelling at? What’s gonna take time?” Astral asked.

“Huh?” Dern blinked, stepping out from behind the foliage. He stretched his long arms high above his head and yawned. “I was just taking a nap. Got tired. Was I talking in my sleep?”

Dern looked older than before. Maybe Astral was right and he was more senile than dangerous. It wasn’t as if dragons hadn’t been overprotective of their mates for all of recorded and oral history. Maybe my inner beast was overreacting.

“I am not. Do not let your guard down. That wolf is not to be trusted! I can feel it under my scales,”my dragon roared inside my thoughts.

I glanced at Astral. He was helping Dern back onto the path and not eavesdropping on me and my inner beast. I walked on the other side of Dern all the way back to town and insisted ongoing inside with him when he helped Dern into bed. Something fishy was going on with that wolf. Only I wasn’t sure how I was going to find out what it was before it was too late.

That night after dinner, Astral dozed off in my arms like he always did. Dern was the least of his worries. He made another call to the local pack clinic to let them know that someone should look in on the old wolf but he didn’t feel the same sand paper against his flesh as I felt against my scales when it came to his pack mate.

“We could just eat him,”my dragon mused.“Wait until he wanders off into the woods and just eat him. Everyone would think he did that thing where old furry shifters wander off into the woods alone to die.”

I’m not gonna lie.

It was a tempting plan.

---