Page 45 of His Innocent Omega
Abandoning my coffee, I quickly stripped out of my sweats and shifted into my fur. My wolf quivered with joy, and we bounded across the wide yard and broke through the tree line in a blur of gray and black fur.
Wyatt startled, his long, long, long legs kicking out, and he took off at a run. Bounding after him, I was astounded to realize he ran nearly as fast as my wolf. Finally, I let out several sharp barks to get his attention, sitting on my haunches and waiting for him to stop.
While he slowed, I feasted my eyes on him, panting. He was glorious. Long legs, torso, and that neck. On top of his head were two hornlike points, standing up between his ears. His snout was long, his large eyes surrounded by what looked like cartoonish long lashes. His tan and brown fur had an intriguing pattern of spots, and I itched to run my hands over them. To see if he was as soft as he looked.
Wyatt came to a stop, staring at me with those eyes of his, one front leg pawing at the earth with his hooved foot. He looked like he might be deciding if he was going to charge me. Did giraffes charge? Fuck all if I knew, but I’d rather not find out. I could count on one hand the facts I knew about giraffes.
Holding myself still, I waited him out. Hoping he would scent me on the breeze, like I had him. His long snout twitched, and he stopped pawing the earth. He took a tentative step towards me, then another.
My shoulders twitched with the effort it took me to stay where I was, to stay seated, and to not make any sudden moves that might startle him. When he stood in front of me, about a footseparating us, I looked up and up. And up.
He was so much bigger than I imagined he would be, my slight omega. His chest was broad and his muscles powerful. Googling giraffe facts was next on my list of things to do. I wanted to know everything there was to know about him, in his shifted and human form.
We couldn’t communicate in shifted form, but I wished we could. Jamie seemed to think our mate bond had started to form, even though we had hardly spent any time together, and we certainly hadn’t claimed each other. Even if Wyatt was willing, the claim bite had to be done during sex and he wouldn’t be up for that for another few weeks.
Slow your roll, Becks. You’re getting way ahead of yourself again.
Wyatt cocked his head at me, his neck swiveling so he could get a closer look at my wolf. He was staring into my eyes, and what he saw must have convinced him of who I was.
Barking once more, I tossed my head in the general vicinity of my land, hoping he would follow. Looking back, he was staring after me and I barked at him once more. Finally, he followed, but I swear his shoulders gave an annoyed heave and I heard him sigh.
Running ahead, I shifted back to my human form. My fingers were aching to touch Wyatt in his giraffe form. He stopped when he saw me standing there, naked, waiting for him. His muscles twitched, but he didn’t move away or shift.
Reaching out slowly, I waited to see if he would flinch away, or try to take a chunk out of me. Kick me with those powerful, endless legs of his. When he did none of those things, I ran my hand down his side, burying my fingers in his tan and brown fur.
It was coarse and rough, not at all what I had imagined itwould feel like. I was expecting soft. His skin underneath felt thick. He pawed at the ground again, huffing out a short breath through his nose.
That was probably my cue to stop petting him like he was a dog.
“I’ve got a pair of sweats you can wear if you want to shift. If you want to talk. I was going to stop by to see when I could take Jules for a bit.”
Not waiting for an answer, I strode away, smiling when I felt his eyes watching my ass the entire time. I might have been half a century old, but you could still bounce a quarter off my glutes. Grabbing up my discarded clothes from earlier, I strutted into my house.
“Fuck, you’re not auditioning forSaturday Night Fever, Becks,” I muttered to myself, scrounging in my bottom drawer for the old pair of sweats I had with the drawstring. They’d still hang off Wyatt, even with the little baby pooch he was still carrying. “Stop shaking your ass like you’re fucking Travolta.”
Changing quickly, I hurried back outside, afraid Wyatt would change his mind and leave. We’d been getting along well the last two weeks. A few days after our talk in his bedroom, he had called to let me know I could come by for a couple of hours to see Julianna and spend time with her. But it always felt like we were moving around each other with a tenseness I didn’t like or want.
There was a wariness in Wyatt’s eyes when he looked at me, like he was just waiting for the next dumbass move I would pull. Not that I blamed him. I would probably do the same thing if the shoe was on the other foot. Because of that, we tended to keep conversations baby related, and completely ignored the elephant in the room of us being fated and what we planned todo about it.
The more time I spent with Wyatt, the more sure I was of one thing. I wanted him. Like I had never wanted anyone, or anything, in my life. He was my missing piece. Him and Jules. They were what I had been waiting for and hadn’t even realized it. They made me whole. I just had no idea how to prove that to him.
Wyatt was still in his giraffe form, but he had moved further into the yard, closer to the porch. Hanging the sweats over the railing, I turned my back, giving him privacy to change.
After a minute of him rustling the clothing, he quietly asked, “Can I borrow a shirt? I still have baby weight and stretch marks, and…can I just borrow a shirt too?”
Turning to drink him in, I smiled, nodding. “Of course. Please, come inside. Coffee?”
My sweats swallowed him up, even with what he considered baby weight. He’d tied them tight, but they still rode low on his hips. Yes, his belly was a little poochy, and he had some red stretch marks trailing upwards from the waistband of the gray material, but he still looked delectable.
He followed me inside, shutting the door behind him, and stood awkwardly waiting while I found an old T-shirt to give him. He gave me a shy smile as he pulled it over his head. And fuck if my cock didn’t twitch at the sight of him wearing my clothes. It was like some primal, raw need zipped through me.
Mine. Mate.
Those thoughts were all mine and not my wolf’s this time.
“Thank you,” he whispered, then cleared his throat nervously, looking around the one large room that was open and housed my kitchen and living room. “Wow, there’s a lot of baby stuff here.”
Running a hand over the back of my neck, I smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, I might have gone overboard. I just know babies need a ton of stuff and I thought this would be easier on both of us. If we didn’t have to lug stuff back and forth.”
