Getting Close to the Omega (4 page)

was the obvious choice, although now Dean was wondering if

he might have been better off paired with Jax. The man was

highly trained, was big built like most wolf shifters, looked like

a mean sex god and had freaky eyes. Dean didn’t really know

him either, but he did know that Jax wouldn’t try and jump his

bones. But Kane had paired him with Matthew, and that led to

Dean’s latest dilemma. If Dean wanted to go to town, then he

would have to ask Matthew to go with him.

Dean tried to tell himself to man up and approach his mate. He

told himself repeatedly that he really didn’t have anything to

worry about. Matthew was his mate - the man would never

hurt him. He would want to have sex with him, and maybe

even want to claim him. That was the nature of the mating

bond. But he would never hurt Dean. But it was the sex issue

that was at the heart of Dean’s problem.

In most cases, when shifters met and claimed each other, sex

was involved. The dominant partner would fuck the less

dominant partner, and bite him at the moment of orgasm. In

the Cloverleah pack, the men there had all originally thought

that they couldn’t have mates because that is what Kane, and

his cousin Griff, had been told when they left their home pack.

Then Kane met Shawn and that myth was blown to pieces. Gay

men could have true mates, blessed by the Fates. Griff’s

meeting and claiming with Diablo cemented that idea.

The myth about claiming during sex was blown out of the water

when Damien, in a fit of whatever, had bitten Scott, after Scott

had gotten injured chasing some rogue shifters. Nobody

thought the mating bite would take – in shifters it leaves a

permanent scar so every other shifter would know the

individual was part of a mated pair, the scar only occurring for

true mates. But for Scott and Damien it did take, and

considering the men hadn’t shared more than twenty words

together over the short time they knew each other, that caused

the two men a lot of problems. But the men of Cloverleah

learned then, that sex wasn’t always necessary in a claiming.

Matthew would want to have sex. Dean was sure of it. Dean’s

body let him know, almost every minute of the three days he

had been stuck in his room hiding out, that it wanted sex too.

The Fates were funny like that. When two true mates met,

they would have this insatiable need to have sex with each

other, often. It didn’t matter who the two people were, what

their backgrounds were, or anything at all. It was if the Fates

decided that two mates would have a compulsion to be

together, they would have sex, during which claiming was

inevitable thanks to their animal spirit, and then the couple

learned to live with each other after that. But while Dean’s

body was hungry for Matthew’s body, Dean’s brain wasn’t sure

he could go through with the act itself. He hadn’t had sex for

more than six years, for good reasons.

Shutting his eyes to stave off the bad feelings that always

flooded his system when he wandered off down memory lane,

Dean forced himself to be practical. He didn’t know for sure

that Matthew even wanted him. The big Alpha might have a

compulsion to want to be with him, but the guy might not find

Dean attractive and could control himself. He certainly looked

capable enough.

If he could just find a piece of paper, but no. Everywhere Dean

looked, he saw pictures, but no clean paper. Or pencils. Or…

Cursing under his breath, Dean snatched up his wallet from his

dresser and headed out of the room before he talked himself

out of it. He needed his art supplies and if Matthew didn’t want

to go with him, then he would go by himself. Kane would be

angry, but Dean was getting desperate. If he didn’t put pen to

paper soon then he might do something really stupid. He’d

done it before.

/~/~/~/~/

Matthew swallowed his groan as he was blindsided by the

delicious smell of his mate coming down the stairs of the pack

house. For three days Matthew had been hoping to see Dean,

but the man had remained in his room, not even coming down

for meals. When Matthew had asked Kane about it, the Alpha

had said that Dean quite often got lost in his art work, but

usually came down to the kitchen later at night after everyone

had gone to bed. Matthew had stayed up late every night,

hoping to see his little mate, but either the man was not

eating, or he was more of a sneak than Matthew had given him

credit for.

From the gaunt look on Dean’s face as the man came to stand

in front of him, it would seem the man had not been eating and

Matthew’s need to look after his mate sprung up out of

nowhere. Thinner than he had been three nights ago, Dean still

looked amazing to Matthew. His trim body, hidden by a baggy

t-shirt and even baggier jeans, still shone through as the man

moved. Matthew forced himself not to adjust his cock in his

own tight jeans, biting his inner lip as his dick connected with

his zipper.

“Hi,” said Dean in a rush, “I’m not sure if you remember me –

Dean? From the dinner the other night. Yes, well, I have to go

to town to get some supplies and, well Kane said I was

supposed to have someone with me if I went anywhere. But I

can see you’re comfortable and all that, on the couch and

probably relaxing and I don’t want to bother you. So can you

just let Kane know I am at the art store and I’ll be back in an

hour? I’m sure I will be fine. Thank you.”

As soon as he finished talking, Dean turned to go and Matthew

quickly got to his feet. He had only been sitting on the couch

because it was close to the front door and the main stairs. He

had worked out it was the best place to be close to his mate,

barring sitting outside of the man’s bedroom door. Because

that would be just freaky. But Matthew was bored out of his

skull and desperate to spend time with Dean. So if Dean

thought he was sauntering out of the door without him, well his

little mate was going to be in for a big surprise. Dean wasn’t

going anywhere without him.

“Dean,” he said, his deep voice probably giving away more

emotion than he was comfortable in sharing. He was aroused,

but he was also pissed off that his little mate thought he could

just wander into town against the Alpha’s orders and with no

thought to his safety,
and
the Omega had clearly not been

eating. Dean stopped in his tracks but didn’t turn around so

Matthew stepped over to him, standing between him and the

door, forcing a calmness he didn’t feel.

“Kane said you aren’t to go anywhere on your own,” he said

quietly. “If you will give me a minute, I will get my wallet and

come with you.”

Not bothering to see if Dean agreed or not, Matthew sprinted

up the stairs to his room. As he grabbed his wallet off the bag

at the foot of the bed, he caught sight of his face in the mirror.

The wicked grin might not be appropriate, he reminded himself

as he headed back out of the door.

Dean was waiting for him on the front porch of the house.

Matthew rather liked Kane’s home. It was a big place, built in

the style of a log cabin, and the porch ran right around the

house. A large pack circle created out of rocks decorated what

could be termed the front yard, and the other three sides of

the house were surrounded by a stretch of grass leading into a

forest area. Matthew was looking forward to going for a run

and he hoped that at some time during their trip to town, he

could convince Dean to go with him.

“Bike or car?” Dean asked as they headed around to the garage

that took up considerable space on one side of the house.

“Car,” Matthew said. The thought of his mate riding a bike on

his own sent shivers of alarm up Matthew’s spine. Besides, he

couldn’t talk to Dean if they were riding their motorcycles.

Dean didn’t say anything else, just slipping into the driver’s

seat of a large SUV, waiting for Matthew to join him. As soon

as Matthew got into the vehicle, he knew he had made his first

mistake. At least if they had been riding motorcycles he

wouldn’t have been encased in Dean’s scent. He opened the

passenger side window, but it didn’t make much of a

difference.

“What made you think that I would forget who you are? You

already know what you are to me,” he asked as Dean headed

the vehicle into town. Matthew had decided that they needed

to be blunt about a few things – he didn’t think his dick would

ever forgive him if he didn’t try and make some headway with

his timid mate.

“Wow, you get straight to the point, don’t you?” Matthew was

pleased to hear that Dean had a bit of spirit.

“I see you once, you disappear for three days and then try to

blow me off when you do come out of your room. I figured I’d

better take advantage of the situation while I have you captive

in the car,” Matthew said with a smile, looking across at Dean.

He caught a flash of lust as Dean looked at him quickly and

then focused back on the road ahead of them.

“Yes, well, I had a few things to think about,” Dean said so

quietly Matthew almost didn’t hear him. For a moment

Matthew’s heart sank, thinking that his mate was considering

rejecting him before they had even gotten the chance to know

each other. But Dean continued.

“I have had a few issues in the past,” Dean explained. “I wasn’t

sure how my mate would handle them, if I ever met him that

is. And now I have, and well, I…needed art supplies.”

Matthew thought over what Dean had said, searching for what

was behind his words. On the face of it, the words themselves

didn’t make sense but Matthew got the idea Dean was trying to

say that he had some worries about being with a mate, but had

decided to speak to Matthew anyway. At least he thought that

was what Dean was saying.

“I think the thing about true mates,” he said slowly, feeling his

way, “is that it doesn’t matter too much what has happened in

the past. It’s more about how the two people would be

together in the future that should be more important.”

He thought the words would be helpful to his skittish mate, but

Dean looked more worried than ever. “What happens though,”

Dean said, “if the past could impact the future those two

people might want to have?”

Ouch. Matthew was not keen on that word ‘might.’ After

waiting so long to finally meet Dean, he had to do something to

get that word ‘might’ removed from the young man’s

vocabulary. But it wasn’t as easy as an Alpha demanding that

Dean see things his way. He could do that, but things might

not work out so well in the long run if he did. Kane had said

that Dean needed to have control over his decision making

process, so Matthew sucked in a deep breath and said, “I’d like

to think that if there is something in your past, that you think

could upset our future relationship, then at some point, it

might be nice if you could share that problem with me. That

way the two of us could work on the solution together.”

Matthew had deliberately used the words ‘you,’ ‘me,’ and ‘us’.

Speaking in euphemisms or hypothetical situations about

mates, was not going to help and Matthew knew they didn’t

have too much time. If Dean was going to scurry back to his

room the moment they got back to the pack house then he had

to give the man something to think about.

Looking around, Matthew saw that they had pulled into town.

Cloverleah was only a small place, with most of the shops all

lining the main street. Dean pulled up in front of a small diner

and stopped the car.

“I need to go over there,” he said pointing to a little art supply

store across the road from the diner. “I thought you might be

more comfortable if you went and ordered yourself something

to eat – Kathy’s diner serves real good food. I won’t be very

long.”

“I’m coming with you,” Matthew said firmly. “I will take you to

lunch when you’ve finished your shopping.”

Dean looked like he was going to argue, but he gave a tight