Chapter 51: Still Here

Later that night the pack house had settled into a heavy, exhausted quiet. The five of them sat in the living room still carrying the leftover adrenaline of the mountain pass, the dragon, and how close they had come to losing Cass for good. Conversation came in low, scattered pieces. They rehashed what they had seen, what Lucian had risked, what the Void Dragon’s black fire had done to everything it touched. No one was ready to sleep.

Roan lasted longer than anyone expected before the fear finally broke through.

He set his drink down, climbed onto the couch, and pushed Cass onto his back with steady paws. Cass looked up, ears lifting in question, but the moment he saw Roan’s face he understood what his Alpha wanted. The black wolf’s golden eyes were still too tight, too raw. He had watched his mate get thrown off a mountain inside an armored truck and then disappear under black water. The terror of that moment had not finished working its way out of him.

“I need to feel you,” Roan said, voice low and rough. “I need to know you’re still here.”

Cass didn’t hesitate. He spread his thighs and reached for his Alpha. Roan undressed him with care, peeling away shirt and pants until Cass lay bare beneath him. Then Roan shoved his own clothes down just far enough, lined up, and pushed in.

The first stroke was slow and deep. Roan sank into the tight heat of his pup until his knot pressed against the rim, then kept going until he was buried. He stayed there for a long moment, breathing hard, forehead pressed to Cass’s, simply feeling the living warmth around his cock. Cass wrapped both arms around the bigger wolf’s shoulders and held on.

“Daaaamn, that’s a hot penetration,” Kiran said, smiling. Zariel chastized him to cut it out and let them be.

Roan started to move.

It was not frantic. It was heavy and tender and almost desperate in its restraint. Long thrusts that dragged every inch of him through Cass’s body, knot bumping and stretching the rim on every stroke. Cass moaned softly into Roan’s neck, legs hooked high around the black wolf’s waist, taking everything he was given. The wet sound of their mating filled the quiet living room. Roan’s paws slid under Cass’s back and held him close, as if he could fuse them together if he just pressed hard enough.

“You’re here,” Roan murmured against his ear, more to himself than to Cass. “You’re still here. I hate how easily I let them walk you out of the pack house, right under our noses.”

Cass turned his head and kissed the corner of Roan’s muzzle. “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Yeah, that was some invasive shit. Fucking Dream Walkers.” Zariel was legit angry. He did run the trials to be more prepared and it feels like they are more vulnerable than they’ve ever been.

“Yeah but wolf, you shot a Void Dragon with a 2 million dollar bullet!” Kiran said.

“It will probably survive that, sadly,” Khepri added.

Across the room Khepri had already pulled a small camera from somewhere. The hyena moved around the couch in a half-crouch, adjusting angles, checking the light from the lamp, muttering under his breath about composition and focus. He filmed the slow roll of Roan’s hips, the way Cass’s belly flexed every time the knot stretched him, the tight grip of the black wolf’s paws on his mate.