Wild Magic Three: The Shade of the Earth- a M/M fantasy shifter romance

EPILOGUE: Gifts in the Den

SAMI—

My mate was very kind to me, and he was a good mate. He bought me pretty things that caught my eye and sparkled and made me smile. He tried to make our den a home, though I told him over and over, it was already the best home because it was mine and it was his and I was safe and warm and he loved me. He laughed and bought me more things anyways, so I stopped complaining. I liked the pretty things, so if he wanted to give them to me, then I'd take them and suck on his balls in return, since he liked that so much more than pretty things.

He bought me books with lots'a pictures, a big carved clothes holder that made me cry silently through the night as I studied the carvings on it as my mate slept. I spent that entire night after my mate brought it to our home studying the little animals on it, fingering the exquisite work that someone had spent many hours on. I sat cross-legged in front of the big clothes holder, staring at it and occasionally reaching out to follow a carving, tears pouring unchecked down my cheeks, until the sun began to peak through the trees and my mate began to stir.

Then I went to wake him in the best way I knew how: crawling beneath the blankets and up to swallow him whole.

I didn't know why the clothes holder made me cry, and the tears weren't sad ones. I didn't understand why I was crying while I was smiling at the same time. I didn't know something like happy tears existed before my mate made me intimately acquainted with them.

I spent my days with Mistress Silvia still, because she'd told me she was gonna take me on as an apprentice. I wasn't really sure what that meant, but it seemed to mean that I was gonna keep on helping her, but more official-like, so I was ok with being her apprentice. Plus, Prince Lhiam told me I got money from being her apprentice, so I was able to provide more for my mate. After I learned that, I was even more pleased with the arrangement.

I loved helping Mistress Silvia with the baby animals the most, helping them come into the world, ensuring they were healthy and clean and fed. She let me name a few, so I named one of the hound babies Dog, one of the barn kits Kit, and even one of the hawks Bird.

She wouldn't let me name anymore after Bird, and she muttered a lot after each one, but Bird was my favorite, so that was ok.

My mate mostly liked to put himself inside me, and I was happy with that. I loved the way he felt in me. The way he moved and how his hot cum coated my insides and made me warm and marked me for him. Marked me as his. Every once in a while, though, he'd look at me in a certain way, his cheeks bright and pink and so precious, and I'd know he wanted me to knot him. He wanted me inside him instead, holding him down and making his insides ache. I liked my Robert like that— vulnerable and laid out bare for me— so it was always a treat when he let me love on him.

I was happy, and I was doing my best to make my mate happy. And I was certain that I was doing just that— for real this time. My mate laughed, and he touched me in front of other people. He glared if any one gave either of us a bad look, and he came to get me wherever I was with Mistress Silvia at the end of each day, laughing and kissing me when I jumped up into his arms. We usually ate before we went back to our den, since neither of us could cook, then we spent the night in each other's arms, slaking our lusts over and over until we both fell to sleep on our big, warm bed, our bodies tangled and our breaths heavy.

And then my mate asked me something I didn't understand, and I learned something strange about humans. Something I didn't really understand, no matter how much my mate explained it to me. The two of us claiming each other wasn't the way it's done among humans. They need a piece of paper signed by the prince that says they belong to each other.

As long as my mate was mine, in all ways, I didn't really care one way or the other though. My Robert was mine, and if he wanted the married, then that's what I'd do.