Page 92 of Full Body Hit: Part 2
Yeah, fucker. It was permanent.
It probably helped that Auston was going to retire at the end of the year—it wouldn’t be the Spirits’ problem for much longer.
It was their teammates Chase was dreading telling the most. Those were the ones whose opinions mattered to him—although, most of all, he’d been worried about Sammy.
With Auston’s approval, Chase told Sammy and Noah first. Chase showed up to their apartment as soon as he could, with the mating mark still bruised and red on his neck, scent all over the place, and let them come to their own conclusions.
“What. The fuck,” Sammy shouted the moment he opened the door.
Noah trailed closer. “What? Who is that?” He stopped short when he saw Chase. “Dude. Why do you smell like that, and oh my God, what is that on yourneck?”
Noah, naturally, had to be filled in on everything—the secret relationship, Chase’s pheromone disorder. All Sammy wanted to know was,What the fuck happened in Cancun?
“So, I went into heat, and…”
“And he bit you?” Sammy demanded. “Just like that?”
“No. He actually—even then he made sure I wanted it. It was good, Sammy. It was…really good.”
Sammy’s face softened. “He didn’t pounce on you?”
“Not in a way I didn’t want.” Chase laughed, remembering how good it had been to be pressed into the mattress and stuffed full of—
Noah sprung to his feet, hand over his nose. “Jesus Christ, Chase!”
Chase went bright red, concentrating on his glands, on pulling the scent back. “Shit, sorry. I, um…it’s gonna take me a while to learn how to control my scent.” Adults did it without thinking when it came to things like arousal, but Chase didn’t even remember he had a scent half the time.
Sammy had his nose wrinkled, but he was laughing. “Wow, okay. How does it feel? The bond?”
Chase pressed the heel of one of his palms to his sternum. “It feels…really good. Like…something glowing there, you know? Something safe and steady.”
Sammy nodded slowly, a small smile on his face. “You’re happy, then?”
Honestly, it hadn’t really sunk in yet.
He had the bite on his neck and the light in his chest and the hazy memories of his heat, but he wasn’t quite convinced this was happening to him. He was peering through a looking glass, seeing the details of someone else’s life, some alternate universe he’d cooked up during his lonely teenage nights when the darkness had convinced him nobody would ever love him.
He was mated to Auston Mazdaki. Auston said he didn’t regret it. That he wanted to keep the bond. That he wanted to build a life with Chase.
Chase had been convinced he was never going to mate, let alone to someone like Auston—so mature and kind and loving.
Was he happy? He was, in a distant sort of way. Most of him, though, was waiting for this illusion to crack and for reality to come spilling through.
“Yeah,” he replied anyway.
“You guys moving in together?”
Chase chewed on the inside of his cheek. They’d been alternating since they returned to New Orleans, things feeling too hectic to breach the topic. It was silly to think Auston wouldn’t want to, but something kept him from asking. “I dunno. We haven’t talked about it yet but…I guess so?”
Sammy hummed. “Do youwantto move in with him?”
“Uhm…yeah. It’s nice having him around. I don’t really like sleeping alone anymore,” Chase confessed.
“Okay, then ask him. He’s your mate, Chase…I feel like you can trust him enough to ask him for things?”
Chase nodded, chastised.
He waited until they’d told the rest of the team to bring it up. The guys reacted like they’d been told Auston and Chase had been part of a terrorist cell, judging by the amount of stunned faces and incredulous exclamations.
