Chapter 40

ACE

My mate was adorable.

After spending a good portion of the afternoon shopping and picking out items to be used during her estrus, I piled everything we bought in the bedroom where Doe had already started to build her nest.

She excitedly tore through the bags, showing me all her new things: blankets and pillows, a mini fuzzy rug, and a small bedside table with a blue, warm-lighted lamp that would go on top of it.

While at the store, Doe insisted she didn’t need anything else for her nest but the curtains, but then kept grabbing things that caught her eye and fawning over soft fabrics and pretty furniture.

Then she would let out quiet whines when she forced herself to put them back on the shelf and leave them behind, thinking I wouldn’t notice.

Oh, I noticed.

I paid close attention to everything she touched and then snuck all the objects she showed even a modicum of interest in back into my cart.

She tried to argue with me when she noticed what I was up to, but ultimately relented and let me have my way.

I was determined she would have everything she could possibly want or need for her nest, whether she liked it or not.

Back at the cabin, she arranged and rearranged all her new blankets and pillows on the bed with a huge smile on her face, while also giving me directions on how to hang the new flowery curtains.

She was giving in to her instincts so perfectly. Her behavior, along with her scent and partially blown-out pupils, told me her heat was almost upon us.

If I’d had to guess, I would have said we had until the next day, but it may even have started that night.

“How’s that?” I asked after I finished putting the curtains up.

Thankfully, there had already been a rod installed, so it wasn’t too hard a task. I stepped down from my chair and looked at my mate.

What I saw made my heart swell in my chest.

Doe was burrowing into a cocoon of countless throw blankets on the bed, humming happily to herself.

She obviously hadn’t heard my question; she didn’t even notice when I approached the edge of the mattress and watched her silently for several long moments.

~Fuck, I love this girl so much.~

Her energy was returning, thank the goddess. I couldn’t describe the torment I’d felt when I found her and saw what our starving bond had done to her. Her sunken eyes, the weight loss, her lethargy…

Now though, only a day later, she was almost completely back to her old, happy self, save for the weight that I would make sure she regained as soon as possible.

The mate bond was a miraculous thing when properly tended to.

Pleased by the view of our mate in such a content state, my wolf started to purr, the sound finally grabbing Doe’s attention.

She looked up, and her hooded eyes made their way up my body at a snail’s pace before finally settling on my face. She licked her lips and smiled. “Hi,” she said.

“Hi, beautiful.” My own smile broadened. “What do you think of the curtains? Do you like the color?”

I didn’t mind that she was being such a control freak when it came to her nest. It was normal for omegas, and I was glad she wanted covers for the windows.

Just the thought of someone unknowingly walking up to the window during Doe’s heat and witnessing me claiming her made the edges of my vision bleed red.

Doe lifted her head to examine my handiwork. Genuine approval shone in her gaze. “They’re perfect. Thank you.”

“Good. Is there anything else you need?”

I had already set up the bedside table and lamp, removed all the empty bags and boxes, and put all the groceries away.

I’d put plenty of plastic water bottles, granola bars, and other snacks next to the bed—easy things for us to grab while we were otherwise occupied.

I had clothes now, too, thanks to Madoc. He’d driven up that morning and left a bag full of my essentials at the end of the driveway.

He’d also mind-linked me to tell me he’d convinced Lacy and Ottis to beat it until further notice.

My beta was a godsend.

Doe looked around the room. “Um…” Her grin faded. “I, uh, I’m pretty sure we did everything. I can’t think of anything else.”

I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow. “Then why are you frowning?”

Doe’s eyes snapped up. “I’m not frowning.”

“Yes, you are. Something is wrong.”

Doe opened her mouth to argue with me, but I cut her off.

“Listen to your inner omega. What does she need?”

Doe huffed but seemed to do what I asked, her gaze searching the room one last time.

“It’s the bed,” she finally stated with a resigned sigh. “I don’t know why, but something just feels off.”

Her big brown eyes looked so lost as she grabbed a gray piece of fabric next to her. It took me a moment to recognize that it was one of my hoodies.

“I slept with your sweatshirt every night while we were apart, but now, it’s mostly just covered in my dried tears and snot. It’s gross. Maybe a fresh one is what’s missing?”

Of course. Why hadn’t I thought of it before?

“Can I join you in your nest, baby?” I asked as I kicked off my shoes. It was important to ask permission before entering an omega’s safe space.

Doe furrowed her brow, but her nod was eager. “Oh, uh, sure.” She untangled herself from her cocoon so she could lift the blankets for me.

I crawled to her side and pulled her to me. Wrapping my arms around her, I led her head to rest on my vibrating chest, where she nuzzled in.

~Yep. Heaven.~

“It wasn’t my sweatshirt that you needed,” I explained while I massaged the nape of her neck. “It was my scent.”

“Your scent?”

“That’s probably why you felt the need to sleep with my clothes while we were apart. You were nesting, and many omegas don’t feel like their nest is complete until they have their mate in it.

“The mate’s scent is the next best thing.

“And even though I slept here last night, we’ve covered up my scent with all the new linens we got today, so that’s probably what was making your omega uneasy.

“Here.” I sat up and pulled my shirt over my head, then handed it to her.

“Oh,” Doe mumbled. She brought my shirt up to her nose and inhaled. Her pupils dilated. “Yeah, that all makes sense.”

My wolf pranced around in my mind with joy, happy our mate needed us and liked our scent.

I settled back down next to her. “How does your nest feel now?”

Doe hummed in contemplation as she laid down practically on top of me. “Complete. Perfect. I don’t think it was necessarily your scent that was missing. It was you.”

DOE

Ace’s expression was one of pure delight. He pulled me closer and pressed his lips to the gland on my neck, biting down gently, almost as if he couldn’t help himself.

My perfume exploded.

“Shit. Sorry,” Ace groaned. He ripped himself away, drawing a low whine from my throat. The sound made his muscles tighten. “I know, I’m sorry, baby.

“But I can’t get us worked up just yet. We still have to eat dinner and take a shower. Those are the last two things on my list. Plus, a good night’s sleep. Then we can do whatever you want.”

“The shower sounds fun.” My hand crept down his hard abs to play with the waist of his pants. My mouth watered when I spied the outline of his hard length pressing up against the zipper of his jeans.

If I could just convince him to take them off…

“No,” Ace snapped. He grabbed my hand and brought it to his lips, kissing my palm.

I bit the inside of my cheek, tamping down the strong urge to let out another whine.

~Get it together, Doe,~ I snapped at myself. ~You are not a slave to your instincts.~

I heaved a calming breath, even as my eyes lingered on the monster hiding behind his zipper.

“Hey, can I ask you a sort of, um, personal question?”

Ace looked down at me. “Do you know how long I’ve waited for you to know everything about me? You can ask me whatever the hell you want. Nothing is too personal between us now.”

I swallowed the thickness in my throat. It was sweet of him to say that. I just hoped he didn’t change his mind.

“So, you know how I said I did a lot of reading about estrus during our time apart?”

Ace nodded slowly. “Yes.”

“Well, there was something that came up that I’ve been meaning to ask you about… Something that happens to ~you~ during my heat. Or during your r-rut, I guess.”

“Okay…,” he said.

I paused, chewing on my bottom lip, trying to come up with the best way to phrase things. “Do you get…? Does your…?” I sighed and then finally just blurted, “Do you have a knot?”

Ace’s relieved exhale quickly turned into a chuckle. “Jesus, you had me worried for a second there. You’re asking me about my knotting you.”

My cheeks flamed. Just the word “knot” made my core ache, pulsing at the same pace as my heartbeat.

Ace’s nostrils flared, and his irises darkened. He could smell how wet I was getting. He could smell my…~slick~.

Jesus, the omega terms were insane. I mean, ~slick~? Really? They couldn’t come up with anything less vulgar? I suppose it got the point across, though.

Slick was the liquid that an omega’s sex released in preparation for mating. It’s similar to the normal female arousal but…more. More slippery. All in preparation for a knot.

“I’m glad you asked, Doe.” Ace’s voice was silky smooth and only made the tingling in the pit of my stomach a million times worse.

His hand spanned over my ribcage, settling me against him like an anchor to a ship. “The answer is yes. I’ll develop a knot during your heat.”

“And you’ll…you’ll put it…in me?”

My entire body trembled, more perfume and slick pouring out of me. The lower muscles in my abdomen clenched and gelled. I bit my lip.

Ace went still, cursing quietly under his breath as he squeezed his eyes shut. After taking a moment to calm himself, he sat forward and looked at me.

“Only if you want me to. I mean, you’ll be pretty desperate for it once you go into heat, and I will be, too, but if it’s not what you want, you can tell me right now, and I can hold myself back.”

My instincts screamed that it was wrong. “I read that it’s nearly impossible for male wolves to stop themselves from knotting their mate once they go into rut.”

“Yes, but…I don’t want to hurt you, and neither does my wolf. You’ve already been through so much, and the trauma just keeps coming.

“I was already planning on holding back until you said something. I didn’t think you knew what knotting was, and I didn’t want to scare you.”

“Oh…” I squirmed, aware that my insides were melting into warm, gooey wetness. I was sure my panties were a mess. “What if I…~want~ you to knot me?”

Ace’s eyebrows practically shot to the ceiling. Even I was a bit surprised by my words.

If you had asked me a few months ago if I was okay with having a giant knot the size of a fist shoved inside of me, I would have said hell no.

But now that I was so close to heat and my omega side was almost completely mature, the idea didn’t sound nearly as appalling.

In fact, my instincts were screaming at me that it was right. Vital. I ~needed~ Ace to knot me. My heat would be intolerable without it.

“Yeah?” Ace murmured, dark and delicious. His chest was rumbling so hard that I almost couldn’t hear him over his purrs.

“Yeah. I think it’s about time I started embracing my omega side instead of suppressing it. I want the whole thing. The entire heat experience. Even—~especially~—your knot. So long as you want it too.”

Ace’s smile filled my stomach with raging butterflies. “I would love nothing more than to tie myself to you. In every way possible.”

“Well, in that case…” I toyed with the collar of his shirt, suddenly nervous. “I was thinking you might want to m—mark me too. Complete our bond.”

Ace turned to stone underneath me. The growl that rolled out of him was primal and loud. “Are you serious?”

I couldn’t tell from his intense expression if he was happy or not. “Yes…? Unless you don’t want to or think it’s too soon—”

Ace slammed his lips onto mine. “I want to. Fuck, do I want to. I’ve wanted to make you mine since the moment I met you.”

It was like I had overdosed on endorphins. My smile was so wide that it almost hurt.

“Good. Then I’m ready to be yours.”