Midnight Eternal (9 page)

I had no idea what time it was, but he read long enough that my knees and back were hurting. I knew I could call rose or mum and the lesson would end immediately, but I wanted things to be right between us again.

Finally, when I was worried I couldn’t take any more, he put the magazine down next to him on the couch. “You have been waiting for me for fifteen minutes. I waited for you for hours. But worse, I worried about you. As long as you wear this collar, you will not make me wonder where you are.”

I wanted to respond, “Yes, Master.” I wanted to at least nod, but he’d told me not to move so I didn’t.

“Now, it’s 8:15 and I want you in bed by 8:30. If you hurry you won’t be sleeping in my come.”

I raced to the shower and began to wash, and while removing the come from my body, I realized that he’d told me to go to bed, not
meet
him in bed. It was just like I’d thought; when I came out of the shower, he was waiting for me next to my door, holding pajamas.

It was ridiculous to go to sleep at 8:30, and even more so since I wasn’t even a little bit tired, but I did as he asked. As I slipped on the nightgown, he pulled back the covers. I climbed between the sheets, and for a moment I thought he was going to take me again right there, in my own bedroom, but he didn’t.

“Good night, little one.” He leaned down and kissed me on the top of my head. I was in shock when he clicked off the light and closed the door, leaving me in the dark.

As
wide-awake as I had felt, exhaustion set in and I allowed sleep to take me. The problem with going to bed at 8:30 and not really being tired, though, was that come midnight, you were wide awake.  

I lay there for a few minutes wondering if it would be alright to turn on the light and read when I heard a gentle tapping at my door.

“Come in,” I whispered, knowing he could hear me.

“I heard you wake and was wondering if you might like a midnight snack?” I was about to tell him that I wasn’t hungry, but when I noticed the erection in his pajama pants, I understood his meaning of “snack.”

I was pleased that he took me to his bedroom rather than the playroom. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to serve him, and I’d have been happy to do so, but it was a different feeling going as Bec to his bed. My heart raced when he scooped me into his arms, carried me the last few feet, and placed me on his mattress.

“Let’s see if we can get that mark back.”

I hadn’t noticed, but it had faded while I slept. After he came in my mouth, I felt it reappearing, and while we were making love, it returned to its full form.

After he’d emptied himself into my body, I lay in his arms and wondered if he wanted me to go back to my room. He didn’t. We lay there talking all night. I told him about some of my friends I’d had as a child, and he told me about his friendship with Payton. He spoke highly of her and described the relationship she had with her two submissives. I couldn’t wait to talk to other submissives, but I did have to admit I was a little intimidated. Not only were they all extraterrestrials, but they’d been practicing BDSM for longer than I’d been alive. I knew I’d mess up somehow; I just hoped that they wouldn’t think I was doing it on purpose.

Oliver assured me that they would like me. I’d already met his parents and they seemed to approve. I was also fairly sure that Shane liked me, as did Oliver’s sister, Sydney. All I had left was to pass the approval of his best friend.

Master

It had been an emotional day. The lowest point being when I was worried Bec was out there hurt and alone. The realization that she might have been hurt and
not
alone was so terrifying I wouldn’t allow myself to go there in thought. It was also an ultimate high when I saw my mark on her chest. She wore it so proudly, and it made my feelings for her even stronger, which I didn’t know was possible.

I thought about brunch and how I would introduce her to Payton and Caleb, as well as give her time to get to know the rest of my family better. I knew they would like each other, and it would be nice to merge my two worlds.

Bec and I had talked all night, just sharing bits of information about ourselves. She wanted to know everything about my family and friends. I could tell she was nervous, and I thought it was endearing.

We made love before leaving for brunch, partly because the mark on her chest was fading and I wanted it to show clearly so Gabriel could examine it, but mostly because I knew that brunch would last a few hours and I wasn’t sure if I could go that long without being with her. As I thrust in and out of her body, I thought of how complete I felt, and it wasn’t long before her mark, which moved like my own, was displayed prominently on her chest.

She’d been quiet on the ride to my parents’ and fidgeted nervously with the material of her sundress.

“You look beautiful,” I complimented, and she did. She wore a white strapless dress with pale pink roses. The morning air was cool, so she had a light jacket on as well,
allowing her collar to be clearly visable. I couldn’t wait for everyone to see it, either, because unlike the worry she’d expressed yesterday, I couldn’t be more proud of her in it.

Her mark made me proud too, though the jacket was currently covering it. I could feel it calling to me, and again I wondered how I would make it several hours without connecting with her physically.

Bec gasped when we pulled into the driveway. My parents’ house was quite large and very elegant. They’d lived all sorts of lifestyles, from one-room farmhouses to large estates like they were currently living in. My mother loved this place because it had spacious gardens, and the eastern wall, which faced the lake, had large picture windows that allowed the sunlight to stream in. While few nutrients were able to penetrate the glass, it still felt wonderful to lie in the sun.

My parents greeted us at the door and showed us in.
 Shane was in the living room and smiled at us when we entered.

“Hey, Bec, you look great!” he said, causing her to blush.

“Thanks. It’s nice to see you again.”

“I mean it. You look different…happier.”

“I am happier,” she giggled.

“May I take your coat?” my mother asked, the perfect hostess.

What happened next seemed to be in slow motion. Bec nodded and removed her jacket, exposing the skin and thus the mark on her chest above the sundress.

Shane’s eyes went wide. “Holy fuck!” he yelled, causing my mother to gasp and Bec to take a step backward.

Shane’s eyes focused on the mark, and he moved toward Bec, hand outstretched like he was reaching for it.

Humans might not think it was that big of a deal, but every Bocaj knew you didn’t touch a mating mark unless the person was your mate. And since her mark was over her breast it was a double no-no.

Feeling like my mate was in danger, I reacted instinctively. I jumped between them, growling and showing my teeth as my fangs elongated. Before I knew it, I’d shoved Shane hard. He’d taken several steps backward and collided with the wood of the doorframe.

“Oliver and Shane! What has gotten into you?” my mother yelled, partially bringing me back to my senses, though I wasn’t taking my eyes off of Shane.

“What the…?” Payton said, rushing into the room only to stop mid-sentence, her eyes moving back and forth between Shane and me until she saw Bec. Well…really saw her.

“Oh. My. God!” Her eyes were wide. “Is that even possible?”

Caleb had entered the room, followed by Sydney. With her there, Shane no longer seemed a threat, which allowed my fangs to retract and the tension in the room to instantly dissolve.

My mother was still confused until she moved so she was facing Bec. I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face as I watched hers. “Oh, Oliver! It’s…she’s…”

“Mine,” I finished for her. “She’s mine.”

My mother opened her arms and Bec moved in for a hug. “He’s mine, too,” she whispered, making me beam with pride.

“Oh, so she can touch her but I can’t?” Shane teased.

“You fucking tried to touch her mark,” I shot back.

“You what?” Sydney gasped.

“I just wanted to see if it was real, then Oliver went all ape shit on me.”

Sydney put her hands on her hips. “You tried to touch a newly mated female’s mark, which happens to be on her breast, and you’re surprised that her mate got upset?” She rolled her eyes. “Quite frankly, I’m surprised your hand is still attached.”

“I wasn’t going to grab it. I just wanted to touch it.”

“Her breast?” Sydney’s tone sounded angry, but I could hear the humor behind it. I loved when she fucked with Shane. I knew she was a submissive, but my sister could still pull that Domme attitude out when she wanted.

“Well, I was. I mean, not her
breast
, just her…”

“Shut up, Shane. You’re not gonna win this one,” Payton laughed, walking toward Bec. “Hi, I’m Payton. So nice to finally meet you.”

Small talk was nice after that, and I enjoyed watching Bec interact with my family and friends. She was telling everyone about herself when my mother called from the kitchen saying that brunch was ready. Bec’s eyes widened in surprise when we entered the dining room and there was actual food on the table. I didn’t want to tell her that most of it was for her benefit. If it had just been us, we would have stuck to our main staple for Sunday brunch—raw eggs.

I’d eaten cooked eggs before, and while it was one of my preferred human foods, the consistency seemed wrong to me and the nutrients were gone. Given the choice, I’d rather eat them raw.

There was a dish of scrambled eggs, some croissants, and fresh fruit, which Bocaj liked. There was also some bacon, which was a terrible waste of meat. Humans cooked it so much there was barely anything left.

“Everything looks and smells delicious,” Bec said, causing my mother and father to smile. We filled our plates with fruit and ladled the egg and salmon dish my mother had prepared into bowls. Bec made a plate with scrambled eggs and bacon, though she took more fruit than anything. What I found strange was that after one bite of the bacon, she never touched it again, and she’d barely eaten any of her eggs. What she was consuming was the fruit. She’d eaten every piece on her plate and drank her entire glass of orange juice.

She looked over at my bowl of eggs and salmon and whispered, “Is that soup? It smells really good.”

Everyone had stopped eating and looked up at Bec. While she’d whispered, it had been loud enough for any Bocaj to hear clearly.

“It’s sort of a stew, I suppose,” I answered. “I’m not really sure what you’d call it.”

“It’s oeufs de saumon,” my mother said. “It was my great aunt’s recipe. Mostly it’s eggs and salmon. They aren’t prepared in a way you would like them, but I could heat some up for you.”

“Oh, please don’t go to any trouble. It just looked good and smelled even better. I was just going to try a bite, if that’s alright?”

She looked at me when she asked the last part. “I suppose it’s alright, though I’m not sure you should be eating raw eggs and fish.”

Bec giggled. “People eat raw eggs and fish all the time.”

I nodded and held up a spoonful to her. It made my dick twitch watching it disappear into her mouth, and when she licked her lips and moaned softly, I was rock hard.

“Oh that’s delicious!” she said, making my mother smile from ear to ear.

She had several more spoonfuls of mine before my mother insisted on getting her a bowl of her own.

As she ate, my eyes met my father’s. He arched his eyebrows questioningly, but I had no more answers than he did. However, it did appear that she was much more Bocaj than I’d realized. I really shouldn’t have been that shocked, though. After all, she really hadn’t eaten in days, had only slept a few hours, and most importantly, she was wearing my mating mark.

It wasn’t long before the conversation got around to the mark, each of them firing questions at the two of us. We answered the best we could, and after brunch was eaten and cleaned up, we headed outside for some much needed time in the sun. Ironically, Bec seemed to enjoy it the most.

I loved lying there with her, and being able to converse with my family and friends was the icing on the cake. Bec snuggled up to me and I sighed, knowing that this was the best life was going to get.

After a while of just basking in the sun, my mother stood and spoke. “Oliver, Bec, may I please see you in the house?”

Of course we granted her request and followed her across the grounds and into the large house.

“I just wanted to take a moment to talk to you alone. I’m just so happy that you two found each other.” She walked over to the fireplace mantle and took down a small box. I watched as she pulled out a delicate gold bracelet.

“This belonged to my mother. It’s about four hundred years old. I’d like you to have it.” Bec’s eyes were wide and I could see moisture gathering.

I’d seen the bracelet many times before. It was two single rows of diamonds that twisted around each other.

“I can’t accept a family heirloom,” Bec began to say. “And I’m sure it’s worth a fortune.”

My mother smiled, putting it around Bec’s wrist despite her protests. “It’s worth nothing compared to what you are worth to my son and our family. We are so glad that he found you. Besides, someday I hope that you’ll feel like you are part of this family.”

Bec’s eyes were glassy. “Family is really important to me, though I don’t have one of my own. I lost my parents and only have a few distant relatives, so I’m kind of on my own. I’d do anything to have a family again.”

“Oh, Sweetheart,” my mother said, hugging Bec tight. “As Oliver’s mate, you’re part of our family.”

Tears spilled over onto Bec’s cheeks. “And you’re not upset I’m not…not…you know, like you?”

“Things have a way of working out.” I wondered if my mother knew something I didn’t. She had never been one for prophecies, but maybe my father had told her something. “It doesn’t matter to me anyway. If you make my son happy,
that
is all that matters.”

Bec smiled and hugged her again.

As they pulled apart, there was a knock on the door and Gabriel entered. “Oliver, I was hoping you and I could talk for a few minutes.”

“Of course.”

Gabriel and I excused ourselves and headed to the study. “I want to hear all about the mark. When you’d told me about it, I thought it was a faint shadow, or a trace of something. Hers is actually a full-fledged mark.”

I couldn’t help the smile that covered my face. “It was amazing.”

“Tell me about it.”

“We were in my bed making love yesterday afternoon, after I’d talked to you about her mark.”

“How often are you scening with her?” he asked in shock.

“Actually, a few times a day and for prolonged periods, but we weren’t scening yesterday. We were in my bed, in my room.” His eyebrows arched. “We were making love like a couple.”

“Go on. I’m sorry for interrupting.”

“Well, we were chest-to-chest and I was so deep inside of her, I’m really not sure how I didn’t hurt her. And when I came, the way it felt was so incredible. The heat from my mark was intense, and I felt like there was a fire between us. I was shocked when I pulled back and saw the mark. She was surprised, too!

“It’s actually faded a few times, but it comes back each time we make love.”

“This is all so interesting. I’ve been doing research into the few humans that have gone through the genetic alteration, but they all did it quickly after coming in contact with Bocaj. I haven’t found a single one that has experienced anything like Bec.”

I tried to think of people I’d met who used to be human, but I wasn’t even sure that there was a way to tell if they’d been human or not.

I thought of Payton’s pet, little girl. She’d been human, though I’d often forgotten it because she’d gone through the genetic alteration to become Bocaj before I’d been born. She seemed just like the rest of us, so I guess I’d never put that much thought into it. I knew a bit about her mutation, but I didn’t really know the details.

I turned to Gabriel. “Is there anything about little girl that’s unlike a person who is born a Bocaj?”

“There are a few differences, but only one that is visible, as far as I can tell—her birthmark. She doesn’t have a traditional one, though she does bear the mark of the man who bit her.”

“Yeah, I never thought of that. And she doesn’t have a mating mark, but that’s probably because she hasn’t found her mate—not because she can’t have one.”