Page 22 of His Temporary Alpha Mate
I managed a smile for my friend. “Right. Thanks, Chase.”
Together, Larken and I walked the short distance to my little house. I opened the door carefully, just in case either Spice or Priscilla were close.
My pretty, gray, long-haired cat was nosy when new people were in her home. She appeared from my bedroom. She had likely been sleeping in the window, waiting for me to come home.
“Oh! She’s a pretty one!” Larken squatted and held out a hand for her to sniff. “Priscilla, right?”
I nodded, so pleased he had remembered her name from my stories.
Approving of him, Priscilla rubbed along his long legs and allowed him to pet her. Maybe she’d let him brush her. She loved being groomed.
Spice, never to be outdone, came scampering along one of his walkways. I’d named him Spice because of his coloring, he was the black and gray most ferrets I’d seen were, but he also had a dash of cinnamon all over him. He was just too cute! Spoiling him, I had installed tunnels all along the walls, with platforms for Spice to climb up.
“Hey, Spice! Sorry, I don’t have any treats for you.”
My ferret didn’t care, he just wanted to sniff the new person. Like my cat, he let Larken give him some fuss.
“Come on,” I urged. Retaking his hand, I pulled him towards the bedroom.
Larken flashed me a grin. “Sure thing, Dal, but after, I demand playtime with your furbabies.”
“Give me your knot and you can have whatever you want,” I said as I stripped him out of his clothes.
He captured my mouth with a scorching kiss.Whatever I want, huh? Dangerous.
Shut up.
I felt his laughter over the pack link. I was just about to respond when his hand wrapped around my cock and all thoughts fled.
We fell into bed and used pleasure to block out the hurt of the day. We spent the rest of the afternoon and all the evening there, with only breaks to feed ourselves and my pets. The best way to end a shitty day, in my opinion. Being with Larken was so easy, and my animals loved him. The things he could do with his tongue! Phew, he was hot in bed.
Rationally, I knew using sex to cover my feelings of grief was a bad idea, but being with Larken made me feel so good. With him, I could forget the pain and just live without the weight of it on my shoulders.
Both of us had our own pain to deal with, just together, none of it seemed that bad.
FWB
Larken
Putting aside my hurt feelings over the situation with Roan, I tried to be there for Dalton as he processed his grief and jealousy at Tate’s pregnancy.
Truthfully, I had some envy to work through myself. Roan had accepted both Asher and Tate into his bond and even once that bond had dissolved, leaving behind broken hearts and a new alpha and omega, he still wanted to be with them. Now he was going to be a father with his omega mate.
The pain I felt over seeing him accept betas made me realize a lot of things about my friendship with Roan. Namely, that he relied on me a lot, but didn’t offer the same friendship in return. He still hadn’t asked how I was after being knocked out! A stupid thing to get stuck on, except it was just one of many things that troubled me about our unequal friendship.
In the fallout of the pregnancy announcement, Roan had called more, using me as a sounding board forhis troubles. He told me more than I needed to know about his life with his unconventional family before and after it fell apart. Slowly, they were picking up the pieces, just the same as Dalton was pulling himself together.
The beta spent more and more time on my mind. Dalton impressed me. He had such inner strength. Instead of making it everyone’s problem that he was suffering, he buried it deep and carried on. To those who didn’t know his secret, or not so secret, desire, they wouldn’t be able to tell just how much it burned inside that he wasn’t Tate.
I think it was pretty common knowledge that Dalton wanted a baby. Most of the pack knew he was a sure thing for holding babies, changing diapers, feeding them. Hell, Dakota had handed off Hayden to Dalton when he was barely a day old because everyone knew Dalton would die before hurting a child.
What wasn’t as common knowledge was that Dalton was envious of omegas. He wanted the ability to carry a baby. He wished for an alpha to take him through his heat and get him pregnant.
Yet, instead of giving him his dream, The Luna had bestowed the gift on Tate. Given the gift to a new omega, one who wasn’t sure about his new designation, then had hesitated over keeping his baby.
I knew I shouldn’t doubt The Luna’s plans for her shifters, but seeing someone I cared so deeply for hurting made me want to battle all their demons and even face goddesses to get him what he wanted.
In a few months, Dalton had become very important to me.
