Page 39 of The Rabbit's Foot
“Okay, I’m going to take you to sit with Lydia.”
“What? No!”
He squeezed Alp’s shoulders and gave him a gentle shake. “Listen to me, okay? I get you’re strong and brave. I understand you want to be with me. I’m doing this to keep you safe, and I can’t do that if I have to move slowly or if I have to stop and bend you over. I wasn’t kidding. Your scent drives me nuts. It’s all I can do to keep from pressing your face to the mattress and taking you now. You have to let me focus, okay?” He waggled his brows. “I’ll come back as soon as I can, and then we can do some more fucking.”
“You mean lovemaking,” Alp said, his tone letting Mal know he wasn’t happy.
Mal squeezed him hard. “No, baby. I mean fucking. I’m going to drill you into the goddamn mattress. We’ll put porn movies to shame.”
That seemed to satisfy Alp. Or so Mal thought, until he poked him in the chest. “Fine. But you’d better come back. No running off with another rabbit or… or a fucking woodchuck!” he shouted.
“A… woodchuck?” Mal smoothed a hand over Alp’s hair, then leaned in and took a deep breath, sighing as his mate’s scent filled his lungs. “Where does your mind go?”
“You know, I only have one hand, but I can kick the shit out of anyone who tries to take you—”
“Stop, now,” Mal ordered.
Alp crossed his arms over his chest, staring at the ground. He was trembling, but Mal wasn’t sure if it was from hurt or anger.
“No one is taking me away from you,” Mal promised. “Not any human, shifter, or crackpot doctors. I’m yours, only yours.”
Alp’s head snapped up, his gaze defiant. “You said you slept with a lot of people. How can I be sure you won’t—”
Grabbing him by the back of the head, Mal dragged Alp into a kiss. He loved when Alp whimpered and opened for him, allowing Mal to plunder his mouth. He felt the tension drain from Alp, and then his arms snaked around Mal’s waist. When Mal broke the kiss, Alp still hung on.
“Where’s all this coming from, little one?” Alp shook his head. “You’re going to tell me, and we’re going to deal with it. Now, Alp.”
It took several long moments, but eventually Alp tipped his head back and stared up into Mal’s eyes. “I’ve never had anything that was mine alone. Everything I ever got was someone else’s leftovers. Clothes, schoolbooks, beds. It didn’t matter what it was, we all used the same things until they wore out and my folks had to get something new. Even then, it went to the oldest. Then I got you, and I thought maybe, finally, I’d have something I could call my own.”
“I am yours, Alp. Now and forever, my heart and soul belongs only to you. I will never in my life love another person like I do you. If you never believe me about anything else, you have to know that, okay?”
A slight nod.
“No, not that. Tell me. Let me see inside your head.”
A deep, shuddering breath, and Alp sagged in Mal’s arms. “Hyde is a monster. He’d kill you as soon as look at you. I had a nightmare that he captured you, and I had to stand there and watch as he cut you apart, and all the while you were staring, pleading with me to do something, to save you, and I couldn’t.” He barked a laugh. “The worst thing? I wasn’t even restrained. I just fucking stood there and let him kill you. I let him take you away from me.”
Huge tears slid down Alp’s cheeks, and his sobs tore at Mal’s heart. He was foolish if he thought the trauma Alp had experienced at the hands of those fuckers hadn’t damaged him, but that made him love Alp all the more, because he came through it strong and sarcastic and sweet.
“Listen to me, okay?” Mal said, tugging Alp back down onto the bed, where he lay his head on Mal’s chest. “Do you remember when you and your mom went to the store to get her fucking vanilla creamer and left me here with your dad?”
Alp nodded, his tears still slipping onto Mal’s chest.
“I asked him to tell me about mates, because I admit, I’m clueless. I mean, I knew they were out there, but I never figured I’d have one, so why bother learning about it, right? Anyway, he told me that a mate is the missing part of your soul, and that you might not realize it’s missing if you don’t have it, but once you discover it, you can never be the same again. Being with you changed me, made me hope for a future where the two of us can sit down by the lake and watch as the sun rises or sets. Where we can make love under the stars. Where the two of us can go running together, and explore our home.”
“Our… home?” Alp whispered, his voice full of hope.
“I want to make a home with you. It can be anywhere you want, but it has to be with you.”
“Can we…? I mean, I don’t know how you feel about the place, but….”
He buried his face in Mal’s chest hair. “You want to stay here? In Swenson?”
Alp nodded. “I think this is the place I’m meant to be. I don’t understand it, but I feel as though I need to be here.”
“Then here is where we’ll stay. Together. Until the Maker calls us home.”
That sounded so good. A dream Mal hadn’t even known he wanted.
