What a relief.

But now I had an omega in heat. It wasn’t fair to take advantage of him in this state. How could he make good decisions when his brain was so flooded with hormones and other feel-horny chemicals.

I sliced some cheese and found an orange way in the back of the refrigerator to peel and section. Soup bowls filled, I put everything on a tray, added the crackers and cheese and two glasses of ice water, and padded back toward the living room.

Casey wasn’t gone long, but then who wanted to stay in a cold shower any longer than necessary anyway? He came strutting out with a towel around his waist and nothing else, daring me, without words this time, to take him.

He ate. I didn’t because he was deliberately teasing me, sitting with his leg open wide in a game of peekaboo that had me harder than steel and my dragon demanding we finish claiming our mate. After he popped the last cracker into his mouth and licked the salt from his lips, he faced me, all teasing and demanding gone from his expression. “Nolan, my alpha, please take me to your bed and mate and mark me. I don’t ever want to be apart from you, and that’s not the heat talking. Well, it’s part of it, but I’m going to want you after the heat, too, and I cannot see any reason why we cannot seal ourselves tonight.”

“It wouldn’t be fair to you.”

“Quit saying that.” He stood up and let the towel drop. “I have been hard for you since I first shifted back with you, and I wasn’t in heat then. Heat is just my body agreeing with my mind about how badly we need you inside of us.” He sat, naked, on my lap. “And, alpha, I hurt. The heat has me feverish and achy and my stomach is about to reject all that yummy food you just served me.”

I wouldn’t have called it yummy. I was just hoping for nourishing. “Do you feel that bad?”

“Worse.” He leaned closer and kissed me. “Don’t make me beg.”

My job as alpha was to make sure my omega’s needs were met.

He shouldn’t have to beg.

I stood, jerked my pants down, and reseated my omega on my thighs. “You’re not the only one with a need, omega. I just don’t want to do anything you’ll regret.”

“You’re my fated mate. How can I ever regret joining with you.” He crawled off my lap and onto the couch on his hands and knees. “I’m so slick for you…”

His thighs were glistening with it.

“On my lap, omega. Ride me.”

I didn’t have to wait. He scrambled back, facing away from me, his slick sending my cock right between his ass cheeks. “You’re so hot,” I groaned as my tip penetrated his tight, tight hole. I tried to go slow, but my omega had the power in his position, and he was not interested in slow. He lifted off and dropped down, taking me balls deep before pushing off and falling again. I grasped his hips and assisted him, his speed increasing. “Omega, stroke yourself. I don’t want to come without you.”

His elbow bobbed as he jerked himself in time with my cock plunging into his body, the heat he was in raising his temperature and nearly searing my skin. Or maybe it was an illusion because it was probably not more than a few degrees. But either way, he encompassed me, so tight and hot that it wasn’t long before my balls tightened, and I wrapped an arm around him and pulled him against my chest, using my other hand to reach for his cock and replace his hand with mine, stroking hard and fast, his cum spilling onto his lap at the same time mine poured into his body and my teeth sank into his throat. My knot swelled, he was marked, and we lay entangled. Mated. Claimed. Fate’s gift accepted by us both.

He was going to need another shower, but this time, it wouldn’t be cold and I’d be taking it with him. As soon as my knot was gone and we regained enough strength to stand up.

Chapter Ten

Casey

I woke up feeling more like myself than I had since I first discovered that I might not be able to control my shift for long when I was with Dr. Wolf.

My heat was over. My body ached in places I didn’t even know existed, and I was snuggled up to the man who had stolen my heart. I still didn’t know what control I did or didn’t have over my beagle, but I knew one thing—my mate’s dragon made a difference. He helped me shift back when I was stuck, something no one else had ever been able to do, including my pack alpha.

No matter what happened next, he accepted me. Fully.

Heat had been different than what I’d imagined it would. Sure, I’d expected the desire and orgasms and the burning need that couldn’t be sated. But what I didn’t expect was the tenderness and sweetness of my doting mate. I guess I always assumed it would be this out-of-control frenzy on both sides instead of us connecting and bonding in a new and very deep way. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

I pressed a kiss to his chest.

“You’re awake,” he murmured, hand running down my back in a gentle caress. “How are you feeling?”

“Wonderful. Sore. Loved. Tired. How about you?”

He chuckled. “Not gonna lie, mate…you tested my endurance.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.” He hugged me closer to him. “I can’t wait to do it again for your next heat.”