Phoenix Reborn (Alpha Pack, #7.5)(17)

Glancing over, he caught Noah turning his head away, cheeks flushed, and realized that his sweet mate was upset. Noah apparently didn’t think the teasing was any funnier than he did, but he got the distinct impression he was upset with Nix, not their friends.

Jesus Christ, this mate shit was complicated!

They put a brave face on it, getting through their meal. Once, Nix noted that Noah and Blue had their heads together whispering about something. Nix caught the words “practice tomorrow,” and shrugged it off for the time being. Not that he wasn’t curious, but whatever it was, he knew the prince and Noah were just friends. Noah wouldn’t lie to him about that.

“How’s Leonidis?” Noah asked Mackenzie. In addition to being Kalen’s mate, she was one of the doctors who worked with Melina.

Nix couldn’t care less if the tiger had fallen off the face of the earth. But his mate was a gentle soul, and clearly a better man than himself.

“He’s fine,” Mac reassured Noah. “When he attacked you, he’d just woken up and was confused and terrified. He didn’t know where he was, and he feels awful about what happened. At some point, he wants to apologize to you.”

“Over my stone-cold-dead f*cking body,” Nix spat. Everyone around them froze, and he calmly went back to his meal.

Noah shot him a glare before returning his attention to Mac. “We’ll discuss that later.”

“Sure thing.”

Finally Nix could see that Noah’s head was drooping and he was just pushing his food around.

“You’ve had a big day,” Nix said, patting Noah’s thigh. “Let’s get you to bed.”

That earned him a few snickers, but thankfully no comments. Nix just rolled his eyes, helped Noah from his seat, and they were on their way back to his quarters.

“That was some caveman impression back there.”

“Do you expect me to apologize?”

“No. But I’m going to let Leo apologize, because that will be important to his recovery and mental well-being. He already has enough to deal with, and he doesn’t need me on his conscience, too.”

He had a point. Nix, however, wasn’t ready to concede it, so he dropped the subject.

His baby was so tired, there was no fooling around that night. As he pulled Noah into his arms, though, he knew he was a lucky man.

There would be plenty of loving going on, soon as the sun came up.





5



Noah loved his morning wake-ups courtesy of a certain sexy wolf.

One thing for sure that he definitely had no cause to complain about—Nix was a very dedicated, voracious lover.

The man wanted him on every surface, in every position. Something or somewhere new each day. They’d been back to their stream a couple of times in the week during Noah’s recovery, and had even done the dirty in one of the stairwells in the main building—and had nearly been caught by Nick Westfall. Noah was sure the man knew what they’d been doing, and blushed every time he saw the imposing commander.

This morning, Nix was dragging him along, up the same stairwell past the scene of the earlier crime. “Where are we going? There’s nothing up here.”

“Oh, but there is.”

“What?”

“The roof.”

“Yeah, but there’s nothing on the roof.”

“There will be.” Pausing at the door leading to the outside, Nix grinned. “Us.”

With that, he shoved open the door and pulled them out into the morning sunlight. The day was crisp and warm, only a few clouds in the sky, mountains looming in the distance. A gorgeous morning with an even more gorgeous man standing there looking at Noah as though he was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

“Do I even need to ask what we’re doing here?”

“Probably not.” Grabbing the hem of his shirt, Nix treated him to a stunning view of him removing it.

“But somebody might see! You do realize that those eagles up there could be eagle shifters from Sanctuary who’re relearning how to fly, right?”

“So they’ll learn something about the mating rituals of wolves and their mates.”

With a flourish, Nix draped his T-shirt over a large U-shaped air duct protruding from the roof. Then he stalked Noah, easily catching him. Not that Noah tried very hard to escape. Nix wrangled him over to the duct and it became apparent why he’d placed the T-shirt over the metal—to make Noah more comfortable while he pounded his ass from behind.

Noah found himself draped over the bend, jeans and underwear yanked down around his ankles. Nix nudged his feet apart as far as the material would allow, and bent over his back to growl in his ear.

“I want to f*ck you rough and hard. Got a problem with that?”

Noah nearly came on the spot. Which would’ve been a damn shame.

“Not a single problem at all,” he managed.

“Good.”

As Nix moved into position behind him, Noah was so hard his cock could’ve pounded through the duct. He loved a man who knew what he wanted and took it. This was a side of his mate he hoped to see a lot more often. Not that he didn’t adore the gentle lovemaking equally as much.

But this? Was so. Fucking. Hot.

“God, your ass is so fine,” Nix said reverently. “Wish I could spend all day buried to the hilt right here.”