Page 35 of Briggs
Briggs grinned at me. “I did. We can pick one out next week. The council isn’t going to kick either of us out of our current places.”
That was something that was so new to me. I had somewhere safe to live. Not that I felt unsafe growing up. It was different though. There were weird sounds out in the desert, and the pride was always just…odd. But my parents had been pretty. I stopped my thoughts. What had my parents been? I remember my mom smiling and being happy when it was just us. And Dad had gone to work, wherever that happened to be. And they seemed like they were a happy couple. They never mistreated us. But the pride itself had been incredibly whack now that I was older and could look at it from the outside.
“Did you want to shampoo your hair?” Briggs asked. I blinked a few times before nodding. I’d stood under the spray completely when I first got in the shower, so my hair was already wet. I took the bottle from Briggs and squeezed a small amount into my palm before handing it back. We spent the next few minutes taking care of washing and rinsing everything.
When finished, Briggs turned the water off and stepped out. I followed and quickly found myself wrapped up in a large towel. I laughed as Briggs playfully pulled the towel away, then tossed it onto my head, then pulled it off again. I took it and found him smiling. He was such a gorgeous man, but even more so when he smiled like that.
“You know, I’m immensely grateful that you think I’m gorgeous. Personally, I think I’m average-looking, but if my mate thinks I’m gorgeous, I’ll take the compliment.” Briggs leaned in and kissed my nose. “You are adorable and quite handsome yourself.”
I smiled at him. “I’m not sure how to turn those off. Can you teach me?”
Briggs’s smile dimmed a bit, but not so much I would have noticed if I hadn’t been staring at him so intently. “I can. We’ll work on it while we’re running,” he said. He froze as he was hanging up his towel. “Actually, after. That way, if you can’t turn them back on, we can still communicate.”
I reached out and touched his hand, which had him looking back at me. “I don’t want to lock you out. I just…at times, I’d like to not share everything with you. What if I want to surprise you, but I can’t because I end up sharing everything with you all of the time?”
“Fair enough. But I’d still like to wait until after the run.” I nodded. “Good.” Briggs took my towel from me and hung it beside his. “Come on. Let’s go.” Briggs tugged on my hand, and I readily followed him out to the bedroom and then down the stairs. If we weren’t shifters and about to go outside and shift, I might feel a bit odd about walking through his house naked, but we were.
Briggs led me out the back door, and we found ourselves not quite alone. I heard talking off to the left and immediately moved closer to my mate. “Do you know who that is? Should we wait to shift?”
“It sounds like Felix and some of the other fae enforcers. They live in this row and the one directly in front of us. They’re probably just having a get-together. They have them a lot.” Briggs turned and placed his hands on my cheeks. I expected the kiss and was all too happy to kiss him back. That was until he pulled away and shook his head at me. “Run first. More kissing later. I want to see your cheetah. Will you shift for me?”
There was no way I would ever deny this man if I had the ability to give him what he was asking. I smiled at him before I knelt down and called for my cheetah. It wasn’t a difficult thingsince he and I had such a strong connection after everything we’d been through. My cheetah was just as excited to meet Briggs as I had been for him to claim me.
In seconds, my feline side replaced the human one, and I sat there staring up at Briggs. His eyes widened for a fraction of a second before he knelt down and reached for me. He stopped just inches from my head. “Can I touch you?”
“You can,”I tried to tell him through our bond.“Did that work?”
Briggs chuckled. “It did. You are adorable and gorgeous in your human form, and your cheetah is stunning,” Briggs said as his hands gently touched my cheeks. They quickly moved up to my round ears, and I couldn’t help but start purring. This was our mate, and he was touching us. He thought my cheetah was stunning! Seriously, what more could I ever ask for?
“Wow.” Briggs shook his head. “I work with all types of shifters, but you are just gorgeous, Todd. Truly.”
I opened my eyes and stared up at my mate’s face.“My cheetah and I are both pleased you are happy with how we look. Can I meet your wolf now?”I asked. I heard talking that seemed to be getting closer, and I didn’t know if it was because we’d just claimed one another or if I was simply going to be possessive over my sexy mate, but I didn’t want anyone else seeing him naked at the moment.
Briggs chuckled, leaned in, and kissed my nose, then let his hands drop. One moment, I was staring at all of that gorgeous skin, and the next, there was an overly large wolf sitting where my mate had just been kneeling.
“Your wolf is beautiful. And so fluffy! I can see why he would love the snow. He’s built for it.”
“He is indeed. Shall we go for a quick run? I can show you the mated enforcer housing and a few other places if you haven’t already explored them.”
“I’d like that. I’ve only been around the council building, my little area, and then back around here. Banner and I don’t really venture far. Oh, and by Alpha Babak’s because that’s where John is. We shift there and come this way before going back. It’s not a lot, but I’m usually pretty tired by the time I get there.”
“We’ll have to change that. For all of you. Call out if I’m going too fast for you,”Briggs said as he started off in a trot. I sat there, staring at him trotting away. Did he really say that? To me? Did he not remember that cheetahs were fast? I let my mate get to the end of the building before I took off. I caught up in seconds and was past him like he wasn’t even moving. I heard laughter through our bond as I slowed down so my mate could catch up. When he did, he tugged on my tail. I playfully turned and swiped at him but found myself tackled to the ground with a very happy wolf above me.
Chapter 13
Briggs
Nothing could have prepared me for the week I’d just had. The night after Todd and I claimed each other, we’d spent curled up in my bed. We’d made out, had an amazing frotting session because there were more ways to find pleasure than just sex, and then fallen asleep. The next morning after breakfast, we’d gone for another run on the mountain, but it had been cut short because Todd wasn’t feeling well.
When we’d shifted back into our human sides, we both quickly understood why: his heat was starting. I’d been around enough omegas to know that heats varied from person to person, both in intensity and length. But I absolutely wasn’t expecting Todd’s to last six very long days. Not only that, but it was incredibly intense, and we had very little downtime in between rounds.
When he finally fell asleep yesterday afternoon, I had been incredibly relieved for both of us. For him because it meant he would finally have relief and could rest. For me because I was running out of energy to take care of him. I was grateful that it had become obvious to someone, most likely Master Edison, what was happening because there were new sport drinks,protein bars, and fruit cups that were easy to feed to my mate while we were in a small window of downtime.
I managed to get us both mostly cleaned up before I passed out next to my mate. I slept for over twelve hours, and although I would normally be concerned about Todd still being asleep, I wasn’t. His heat had been hard on his body and mind, and now it was time for his cheetah to take over and make sure they both got what was needed.
I was up, showered, dressed, and had eaten a massive steak, half a chicken, a loaded baked potato, and salad. An entire pot of coffee was consumed, as well as about a gallon of water. I felt better, but even after all of that, I knew it was probably going to take a day or two before I felt like my old self again.
I had a mate, a claimed mate, and although I was excited about that, I had to wonder what the future looked like for us. Todd had been rescued from southern Mexico. He and a few others had been found in a compound much like the one the hellhounds and warlocks had located in South America. How many more were out there? How many would we miss and never find?
