Lone Wolf Pack 03 - Expecting His Alpha's Child (16 page)

It was something that had concerned Parker as well. Since his decision to stay with Finn meant he would no longer be able to help Alicia, he'd brought the issue to Saul, who'd figured out a way to cover the debts and allow Alicia a bit more financial freedom.

"This is a good idea, Alicia," he said. "You know it is. Consider it a loan if you have to, but don't be stubborn."

"I suppose," Alicia answered after a small pause. "It's just that I've wanted to find my son for so long. Oh, Gavin... I wanted to make it up to you. I wronged you so much, Gavin, and we never got the chance to really... fix things."

Gavin didn't immediately reply, and Parker could see the struggle on his face. Deciding Parker and Alicia needed privacy for this part of the conversation, Parker offered the phone to Gavin and left the room.

His timing proved to be impeccable, as he ran straight into his mate. Finn was just coming back from his meeting with the pack. Parker offered him a soft smile as his mate shifted from a big black wolf to a man—the man Parker had fallen in love with.

"How did it go?" he asked.

"As well as it could be expected," Finn answered. "They don't like it, but they don't have much choice but to accept it. We'll be leaving as scheduled."

Parker nodded and hugged Finn. Finn held him tightly, the tension in his body draining as he let go of all the conflicted emotions Parker could feel through their bond. "We'll start over," he whispered in Parker's ear. "Just us. Just our family. It will be okay."

Parker remembered Finn's earlier mourning of his father, and hoped like hell Finn was right. He also knew he needed to get his mate's mind off his pain. There was a heavy burden weighing on Finn, one which Parker ached to relieve him of. "Come on," he told his mate. "Let's go to bed for now. Tomorrow can wait a while longer."

Finn shot him a weak grin. "I did promise you we'd get some more time together. You know, you're right. For now, we can let tomorrow take care of itself."

That was the only warning Parker got before Finn picked him up in his arms. He moved so quickly Parker was forced to briefly close his eyes so that he wouldn't get dizzy. The next thing he knew, Parker was on the bed in Finn's room, with his mate next to him.

Finn didn't actually try anything sensual, not at once. He just lay at Parker's side and wrapped his arm around Parker's waist, his gaze fixing on Parker's face as if he couldn't look away. Parker met Finn's familiar eyes, sinking into the depths of emotion he saw in the stormy orbs.

He didn't know who reached for whom first, and it didn't even matter. Their lips clashed, and their bodies tangled on the sheets as all the feelings that had gathered throughout the day finally exploded, overflowing, overwhelming, swallowing both of them whole.

Parker had tried to stay strong, but it was too easy to remember how close he'd come to losing his mate yet again. He'd tried not to think about how wrong the pack meeting could have gone. He couldn't help but think now, and the thoughts and the emotions had him clawing at Finn's back and chest, needing to get closer, deeper. He wanted to crawl inside Finn and stay there forever, so that he'd never have to be alone and lost again. Finn was the only one who'd ever made him feel so safe and so wild at the same time, and even if they'd spent so little time together, Parker couldn't imagine losing it—losing Finn—forever.

Finn was right there with him, though, his touches somehow managing to be both frantic and strangely gentle. His fingernails turned to claws, but they only shredded through Parker's clothes and didn't harm Parker's skin at all. In fact, the sharp tips barely came into contact with Parker's flesh, and where they did, they left echoes of pleasure behind, awakening Parker's nerve endings.

There was a moment, when the two of them were both completely naked, when they stopped. They simply stopped of common accord, not quite pulling away, still touching but not doing much else. They were both breathless and hard, and as he met Finn's gaze once more, Parker had a sudden certainty.

This was it—his truth, the same one he'd admitted to during his conversation with Alicia. Despite all of his doubts, he'd followed his heart in pursuing this relationship with Finn. It might not be perfect—heck, half the time he had no idea what he was doing—but he wouldn't have had it any other way.

When their mouths met once again, the passion was just as intense and wild, but somehow less desperate. It was as if both of them had wordlessly agreed they were all right, they were safe, and whatever else came, they'd handle it together.

They broke the kiss to breathe, and Finn rolled Parker on his back. He covered Parker with his larger body and licked the hollow of his throat, swirling his tongue around Parker's Adam's apple. Parker arched his back and moaned, bucking his hips in an attempt to draw Finn's attention to the area where he most wanted to be touched.

Perhaps a different time, both of them would have preferred a more drawn out lovemaking session. But now, Parker didn't have the patience for teasing caresses. He needed Finn inside him, more than ever before. He needed to hammer home the knowledge that they were together, to brand it in his flesh, in his mind, in his soul. And Finn needed the same thing, because he kissed down Parker's chest, exploring and caressing, but very obviously keeping an eye on the proverbial prize.

He lingered over Parker's abdomen and kissed the slight swell of his belly. His hands rested on Parker's hips, and Parker realized with dismay that they were trembling. He settled his own palms in Finn's hair, telling Finn without words that it was all right to take what he wanted, what they both wanted.

Finn must have guessed his thoughts, because he briefly rolled off Finn and reached for the nightstand. From inside the drawer, he retrieved a tube of lubricant. Parker had known it was there—he'd been staying in Finn's room during the time his mate had been unconscious—but the sight of it still made his heart race.

He spread his legs wide in an attempt to encourage his mate. Finn didn't need much convincing, as he was already crawling back into his previous position. And then, when Finn slicked up his fingers with a generous amount of lubricant and reached for Parker's hole, it was Parker's turn to tremble, his turn to come undone.

His mate slid one finger inside him, all the while watching Parker's face, possibly for any sign of pain. To be fair, Parker could still feel the lingering effects of their earlier lovemaking. He wasn't exactly sore, though, and even if he had been, he wouldn't have let it keep him from his mate. As it turned out, his body was extra sensitive because of the previous intercourse, and when Finn's finger found Parker's prostate, a wave of shocking pleasure pulsed through Parker. He almost came on the spot, even if they'd barely just started touching.

"Please," he managed to breathe out. "Please, fuck me. Finn..."

Finn shushed him with a kiss. "In a minute."

Parker was fairly certain more than a minute passed while Finn painstakingly stretched him. He forgot to complain, however, when Finn lowered his mouth over Parker's cock, sucking lightly. He leisurely licked at the glans even as he thrust a second slick finger into Parker's ass, and Parker was torn in two by the conflicting and coalescing waves of pleasure. He didn't know if he should try to take the invading digits deeper or start thrusting into his mate's mouth. It seemed unfair that he couldn't quite do both.

His thoughts scrambled as Finn worked his body with the same skill a virtuoso would employ on a musical instrument. Finn's ministrations soon had him soaring in a diffuse haze of pleasure that propelled through every single cell in his body. Parker was lost, lost, between the torture of Finn's hot mouth and the almost ruthless massage of his mate's fingers against his prostate.

The spell Finn wove around him was so intricate and all-consuming that Parker was jarred when both sensations suddenly disappeared. Thankfully, he didn't have to suffer their absence for too long. The world tilted, and the next thing he knew, Parker was straddling Finn's lap, with his mate lying down in Parker's previous position.

Finn's hands were steady on Parker's hips. "At your own pace," he whispered huskily. "I don't want to hurt you."

It meant so much to Parker that even now, Finn still displayed such concern for him. He didn't deem it necessary, but the end result was sort of nice just the same. From his new position, Parker could get a perfect look at Finn's strained face, meet his stormy gaze and lose himself in those gray orbs he'd first fallen in love with. He could finally give his mate the haven Finn needed—and take refuge in Finn's passion and strength.

"You'd never hurt me," he told Finn as he positioned himself over Finn's cock and pushed down.

His flesh parted easily for Finn's invasion, but Parker still gasped at the stretch, the burning feeling unmistakable, inescapable, yet impossibly perfect. Finn gently guided him down, and Parker followed the pace Finn set, allowing the slow, rocking motions to spin him back into the magic of ecstasy and contentment Finn brought out within him.

As they started to move together, that pleasure spiraled higher and higher. Their bond glowed between them, tighter, brighter, and it was a beacon of hope, of trust and fulfillment, a light in a world that could too easily engulf them in darkness.

When Finn pulled Parker down and bit on the juncture of his throat, he did so carefully, almost reverently. Parker's climax was nothing short of explosive, though, as every sensation that had been pooling within him finally burst and tipped him over the edge. Finn thrust inside him one last time and came as well, pumping Parker full of hot spunk.

Within it all, deep at the back of his consciousness, Parker heard Finn's mental voice whispering his name.
"Parker."
And he felt something more, a different warmth, one not his own, not Finn's, but that was part of them both. Their child.

That sensation remained with him even as his orgasm faded into a quiet, yet dizzying afterglow. Parker's muscles went lax, and he would have probably collapsed on the bed if Finn hadn't still been stuck inside him.

"This is another of those werewolf things, right?" he managed to gasp out breathlessly. "I never got to ask."

"It is," Finn replied, "but it only happens between true mates."

True mates. That was what they were, and Parker had known it the day he'd met Finn even if he'd been to afraid to admit it. When Finn slid out of him at last, Parker collapsed by Finn's side and curled closer, his concerns so distant they seemed to have slid into a different world.

Maybe Parker wasn't the only one who'd been touched by that warmth, because when Finn spoke again, his voice was filled with a hope that hadn't been there before. "We'll be all right, baby," Finn told him. "We'll start over, all of us, our family. My father isn't lost to us, not just yet."

Parker smiled as he closed his eyes. "We will."

****

Will zipped up his bag and mentally ticked off another task off his list. He was all done and ready to go. Officially, the luggage was meant to be packed tomorrow for the trip to their new home. But Will had other plans, ones he hadn't shared with anyone.

With a sigh, he lay down on the bed and reached for the book on his nightstand. It was, perhaps, his oldest possession—an ancient copy of George Orwell's
The Animal Farm
. It wasn't reading he sought, however. He hadn't read this particular book in years, because he didn't have the courage to recall the first time he had. Today, he lifted the cover of the paperback, and he found the picture, a black-and-white shot of himself and Dean, as they'd been more than fifty years ago.

Faded and worn, the image was the only thing Will had left of a time he'd loved and suffered most—other than the book it had been hidden in. They weren't kissing—truly, they were barely even touching. In 1960, it had been too risky to display overt affection toward another man. More than anything else, the picture was a depiction of a foolish dream, one Will had known better than to hope for even back then.

Both of them were smiling, though, carefree and happy. Will still remembered the night it had been taken. It had been Will's birthday. They'd gone to a carnival and Dean had won him this huge plush toy that was still somewhere in the attic of the house Dean had bought. They'd taken the picture on a whim, and then, despite all the risks involved, Dean had fucked him in an empty tent.

Will shook the memories away and slid the picture into his wallet. As he did so, a knock sounded at the door. Will left the bed and opened it, already knowing who was his most likely visitor. He was unsurprised to find Jessie at the other side.

"You're going after him, aren't you?" Jessie asked without preamble.

William faced his son, his heart clenching. He was torn, because as a parent, he wanted to stay by Jessie's side and make sure Jessie would go through the pregnancy all right. But Dean needed him, and William refused to lose his mate for a second time.

Even if their bond was broken, even if they never managed to fix their relationship, he wanted Dean to live. The thought of a world without Dean... It choked the breath out of him.

"I have to go," he told his son. "He needs me."

Jessie bit his lower lip in an obvious show of concern. "But, Dad, what can you possibly do?"

It was at times like this that it truly struck Will how innocent Jessie remained of the many things Will had done during the years Jessie didn't remember. He smiled and squeezed his son's shoulder. "Don't worry about me, Jess. I still have an ace up my sleeve."