Hot Stuff: Chosen Book 6 Read online

  Lying back on the bed, I smiled, completely content to have Ward in either form resting against me. I scratched his head, and felt myself drifting off to sleep.

  ***

  I was already burning with arousal by the time I became aware. My skin tingled, and my balls were tightening up.

  A beard brushed my neck, working lower, to scrape over a nipple, as a hand worked my dick so slow, it almost felt like it wasn't moving. Almost.

  I knew Ward couldn't purr. But when he rubbed his beard against the skin of my stomach, burrowing in like he was making a home, I almost did.

  I gasped when his tongue dipped into my belly button before he nipped at the ample amount of flesh just under it.

  "Ward!" I was so close. I could feel the tingles moving along my spine.

  Looking up at me, I could see that he too was just getting his bearings. Like he'd been touching and tasting my body, but not fully coherent of it. His green eyes were nearly glowing, stuck somewhere between man and beast.

  Surging up, Ward took my mouth with his. His cock pressed into the skin high on my thigh, and my dick pressed against his abs.

  I should probably have worried about the fact that I'd been sleeping, and therefore my breath couldn't be all that great, but Ward's mouth tasted so amazing, I couldn't let it go. Sinking my fingers into his hair, I pulled him even further into my mouth and my body, grinding up to rub my fevered dick against his hot skin.

  I whimpered and then groaned into his mouth, as my body exploded, emptying my seed against the chiseled perfection of his abs.

  I pulled back so I could see what my essence looked like, bathing his amazing body, and gasped at the fresh wave of lust it sent through my body. He looked good wearing me.

  "Can I suck you?" I whispered, running my hand through my own cum, loving how the action, or my question, made him shake with arousal.

  "Hot Stuff, you will never need to ask to touch me in any way. My body belongs to you. There is nobody I trust more. Nobody I would open myself up to, more than you."

  Smiling, I kissed his mouth, and then his neck, before nuzzling his bearded jaw with my nose. It smelled so nice. Like something spicy.

  I ran my hands over the sculpted planes of his body, loving how his muscles contracted as my fingers slid across them. There was a time when I would have given anything for a body like his. To be looked at the way this man no doubt was all the time.

  But knowing that I got to touch this man whenever I wanted, and that to him, my body was just as amazing, I wouldn't trade that feeling for all the abs.

  When I finally brushed my hand against his dick, I groaned at the feel of it in my palm. He was iron and silk and beauty and power. I laid between his legs, Bracing one forearm on the outside of his hip, and brought his thrumming dick to my mouth, tracing my lips against the leaking head, drawing a line against my lip before licking it off.

  "Fuck, Hot Stuff. Those lips of yours are going to kill me."

  Smirking, I opened my mouth and sank down on his big dick, humming in happiness when my jaw began to ache almost immediately.

  I slid all the way down, pausing to work my throat and make him moan before sliding back off and flicking a tongue against his head, and then sliding back on. On the third drag out of my mouth, I suckled at his head, feeling him tense. I swallowed him back down again, knowing he was about to blow against the back of my throat, and I reached down to jack my dick.

  I was five or six quick pumps in, when I felt him spasm, and seed erupt in my throat. I pulled back, taking his cum against my cupped tongue, wanting to taste him. I groaned, when his salty flavor landed on my taste buds, and I looked up his body, wishing I had my glasses on, so I could see more clearly, the most beautiful expression of ecstacy I'd ever seen.

  I did that. I made this perfect man look wrecked.

  My balls rolled and then emptied against the hotel sheets.

  I started to move, and cringed when I stuck my leg in the wet spot. "Sorry. You can move over to my side if you want."

  Smiling drunkenly at me, Ward motioned for me to lie on him. I frowned, starting to protest, but his eyebrow shot up, stopping me.

  I eased down on him, not wanting to knock the breath out of him, but he didn't even grunt when I finally gave him all my weight.

  "Shifter, remember? You don't have to be so easy with me."

  Crossing my arms on his chest and resting my chin on top, I smiled. "Right. I'm still not sure what to think about that. Is it all true?" I swallowed, hoping my next question wasn't going to be the thing that made him run far and fast. "Even the mate thing?"

  Ward's soft smile made me feel like warm putty, as he reached up and brushed some fallen strands of hair away from my forehead. "Even the mate thing, Hot Stuff. Even the instant, uncontrollable attraction and the intense pull. Even the strong feelings when you've only known each other a few hours. Even the urge to mark the other person, so that everyone that sees them knows they belong only to you."

  "Have you found your mate?" I whispered, hoping the answer was yes. Hoping that this crazy need I had for him wasn't one-sided or temporary.

  "You are so damn cute, Hot Stuff." He leaned his head up and pressed his lips firmly to mine, nuzzling my nose with his as he drew back. "Need I remind you? You figured out I was a shifter because I slipped up? Of course, you're my mate. I've never found another soul who is more my match than you. You are absolutely perfect."

  "I was really hoping you'd say that." I felt the prickle of tears, and tried to blink them away, burying my face against my crossed arms. "I can't believe this is actually happening. This entire day has been a series of amazing events that keep getting better and better. I feel like there is just no possible way I'm not going to wake up any moment and realize I'm in my boring apartment in Illinois, with a page to a shifter romance stuck to my forehead, because I fell asleep at my desk again."

  His hands skimmed down my body, stopping to squeeze some of my fuller places, and where once I would have been incredibly embarrassed, I only now felt pride. My body was made perfect for this man. He liked my squishy bits.

  No, he loved them.

  When he stopped to run a finger over the slightly raised skin of my birthmark, I suddenly had a new question. And this one was going to be even crazier than the others.

  Ward was smirking again, and being that he knew I'd read his books, I had no doubt he knew what was coming.

  "This mark thing in your books. Does that also translate to real life also?" I whispered, really wishing I had some control over my voice.

  "You mean the destined? The special humans in my books that have the ability to give shifters special children? Even if the destined is a male?" He was still smirking, but my heart was racing.

  I'd always thought my birthmark was amazing. It was just so different from everyone else's. And when I'd read Ward's books for the first out of about thirty times, I was intrigued by the idea of this mark.

  The mark on the destined in his books was definitely not the same as mine. But like the entirely too imaginative person I am, I'd dreamed of someday finding out I might be special. I might be significant.

  "No," he said, quietly. "We don't have destined."

  My disappointment was a little stronger than I personally found necessary. I mean, I'd learned about shifters. Had a shifter soulmate, who would walk through lava for me, and never, ever cheat. Who wanted me, who craved me, even though I was on the wrong side of fit.

  "Oh."

  "We call them chosen."

  He was giving me that smirk when his words registered through my haze of disappointment.

  "What?"

  "They have these beautiful marks that kinda look like a Celtic knot that has been burned into their skin."

  Glaring at him, I pinched the skin of his peck where my hand was resting against it. "That was mean!"

  "I know. And I felt like shit as soon as your gorgeous face fell. I'm sorry, Hot Stuff."

  "Wait!" My stomach fluttere
d, and I know my eyes were huge. "Does that mean I can get pregnant? How does that work?" I cringed. "Where do they come out of? I've seen some pretty disturbing porn an old friend of mine used to play in his living room just to make people uncomfortable. And I swear one dude could take three porn sized cocks at once, but I don't know how that equates to baby size." I cringed harder. "And now I feel even more disturbed that I just compared our future child to three cocks. Maybe I do have a problem. I should get counseling before the baby's born. I don't want my child's first word to be dick!"

  It took a second with all the information and question bouncing around inside my head like ping pong balls, for me to realize my body was shaking.

  Well, Ward's body was shaking, which was making my body shake because I was still lying on top of him.

  "What the hell is so funny?" I demanded. "These are all legitimate concerns.

  "Yes, all of them," he was trying to hold it all in, but his body was still shaking, and his face was starting to turn red.

  Sighing, I rolled my eyes. "I can't believe you're laughing at me. I might actually have a mental illness."

  "I don't have the answers, Hot Stuff, but I know where we can find them." He reached over and grabbed my glasses, handing them to me. "I can't wait to show you off, and tell everyone you're mine."

  I was glad I'd put my glasses on when he looked at me. It would have been an absolute shame to have missed even the smallest detail of the look he was giving me.

  Chapter Five

  "Bennett, I'm fine!" Thompsyn snapped at his mate, as the two came bursting through the door to the leap house, where a group of us were all sitting around the living room discussing chosen type stuff.

  Unfortunately, my adorable mate hadn't asked Foster about the three dicks. I was really wanting to see the look on everyone's faces.

  "But you were throwing up! You're a shifter, Syn. You aren't supposed to get sick." Bennett's voice was more worried than I'd ever heard it. Gone was the joking young man, who always messed with everyone, including his mate.

  Foster's eyebrows shot up, and a small smirk tipped the corner of his mouth, as he watched the couple. He looked around, clearly looking to see if anyone else was coming to the conclusion he was.

  It looked like all, but the bickering couple and my mate, who had no idea Thompsyn was a chosen, did.

  "I probably ate something I shouldn't have when we went for a run last night. It wouldn't be the first time I got sick because my prey had some kind of poisonous seed in its fur." He plopped in one of the big chairs pushed up close to the coffee table that was stacked with files, and grabbed Bennett's wrist, dragging him down onto Thompsyn's lap.

  "Fine, but if you're still throwing up tomorrow, I'm going to yell at you, a lot." Bennett crossed his arms in a huff, but was clearly trying to bite back a smile when Thompsyn easily lifted him off of his lap and repositioned the well over two hundred pound man, so that he could lean against the bear's chest and still see most of the occupants of the room.

  "You're both kinda dumb," Ridley said, shaking his head. When he rolled his eyes and went back to looking at Foster, he raised his hand in a go-on gesture.

  So, apparently, we were just going to wait and let them figure it out on their own.

  "Anyway," the fox said, blinking in disbelief, before continuing. "In chosen males, there is a small, fist-sized organ at the top and front of the anal canal. It kinda sits on the front of the top of the rectum. It has a valve that stays closed unless––" he paused, before shrugging. "Well, unless you're having an orgasm.

  "Once a chosen male has been claimed, he goes into a type of heat. It's not like what you read in books, exactly. Though, there is definitely a boost in sex drive. But how you can tell the difference between that and just the basic mating need you have with your soulmate, I have no idea. The good lord knows, I can't keep my hands off of Burke as it is, and I know his heat has been suppressed because he's on birth control."

  Shrugging, he continued, "At the top of the sack, there is another tiny pouch where the eggs are stored. They drop down, one to three at a time during a heat, which is like once every four months. If the eggs are unfertilized, which come on, if you claim your mate, and don't get on birth control, they're going to get fertilized, then they'll come out in an oily substance in your…uh…stool."

  Davis looked personally offended. "You shit them out?! That just seems so wrong! Those are babies! Little bitty leopard babies with precious little names like Bert and Gretta. "

  Everyone in the room chuckled, making my mate blush a very pretty shade.

  "Hold on, Hot Stuff. One: I'm naming any children we have. You are banned from child naming. Two: He just said it's very unlikely that a chosen won't get knocked up during their heat. Plus, women do it all the time. Well, they don't shit their eggs. Just be thankful you don't have to bleed them out."

  Shuddering, my mate nodded emphatically. "True."

  "And an egg isn't even a baby until it's fertilized. Don't name your eggs, Davis." Arry said, smiling.

  "Wait," Ridley said, rubbing his belly. "How come nobody has found these male wombs? People do autopsies all the time. Surely one has been chosen."

  Nodding, Foster smiled at Ridley. Everyone did. The boy was hard not to love. "That's possible. Even though until now, obviously, chosen haven't been around much. The womb is actually surrounded by a pretty thick layer of fat, which makes it just look like a strange fat deposit on the rectum. If they did happen to cut into it, to check it out, they'd probably just put it off as an anomaly. That stuff happens more than you think."

  "What if they find one that is pregnant when they die?" Ridley's voice was a bit quiet, sounding sad. Flynn growled slightly, clearly unhappy about the sadness in his little love's voice.

  "I've never heard of it happening, to be honest, Rid. I'm sure some chosen have died while pregnant, but most shifters are very, very protective of their mates. They will protect them at all costs. If something like that were to happen, it would be very unlikely anyone would get to that point of the examination without a shifter mate coming in and taking off with what is theirs. And something like that would red flag my office. Everything on a pregnant man would disappear."

  "I guess that makes sense. I was just wondering."

  "Well, stop wondering, Rid. Nothing is going to happen to you." Flynn's voice sounded every bit the alpha, and every bit the concerned mate. Ridley sank against his mate, smiling softly.

  "I wasn't worried about me. I have you to keep me safe. But the other day, I heard one of the nurses talking about when she used to help deliver babies back during the last chosen run. I guess there was an alpha who, he and his men would hunt down chosen, force a mating on them, and then just keep them locked away and use them as breeders. I guess their pack had like thirteen reported chosen children at one time.

  "They were trying to become an ultimate pack, or something like that. Eventually, they kind of fell apart, because everyone in the pack was so power hungry, they started turning on each other. The alpha-mate actually got away, but he was pregnant, and tried to run through the woods. They never even looked for him. The alpha was pissed that he lost his golden ticket, but knew the kid was dead, so didn't even bother looking for his body. Just left him to rot in those woods."

  "Do you think it was a true story?" Bennett's eyes were wide, and I could tell the usually laid back, sass mouth was completely horrified that someone would do that to a chosen. Their mate.

  "It was actually the Walt pack. And it happened toward the end of the last chosen run. The alpha searched and searched for another chosen after his pregnant mate died, but he couldn't find any. Eventually, he was killed while skinned a deer, by one of his children when he told him his power wasn't good enough, and tried to sell him as a slave to some old man to do whatever he wanted with him." Foster shook his head.

  "There wasn't even any resistance when he left. By then, the whole hierarchy had broken down. He took his three brothers and one si
ster and took off."

  "You know him, don't you?" Bennett's eyes were more serious than I'd seen them since Ridley was taken by those idiots.

  "Yes," Foster said, also serious. "I work with him."

  "So, he lost his birth father, and never got to bury a body?" Ridley was holding his chest, clearly hurting for a man he'd never met.

  "Not even a scrap of clothing."

  It was a sad story. Something parents fear. Dying and leaving their children to navigate the world without them.

  "Okay, let's talk about something else. If I start crying now, I'll never stop." Ridley snuggled back into his mate's arms, sighing when the man wrapped them around him, and started rubbing his belly.

  "So, the kid comes out of your ass? I bet that stings. How do you prep for something like that? I was telling Ward about this porn…but I probably shouldn't bring that up. You think it's a massive butt plug?" Davis, was squinting at the ceiling, like he was actually trying to imagine the process of stretching one's asshole for a child to come out.

  Bennett's head slowly panned our direction, and absolute, unadulterated delight shown in his eyes. "Thompsyn," he whisper-yelled, smacking the bear in the chest. "Can we keep him? I want one."

  My mate blushed, but it was the surprised smile on his face that made me the happiest. His asshole of a father probably made him feel bad for his run-away mouth, but everyone I knew, found it absolutely endearing, and lots of fun.

  Thompsyn just grunted and rolled his eyes, while everyone else got over the shock of the question my mate just asked with a straight face, and started laughing.

  "You're not getting my mate, Bennett. He's mine." I knew he didn't want my mate in the way I did, but the idea of Davis belonging to anyone but me, even in the little kid with a pet, way, made my leopard cranky.

  "What are you going to do with him? We could have the best conversations. I've heard you speak a dozen sentences in all the years that I've known you, and seventy percent of them were tonight! You can't possibly stimulate him enough auditorily." Bennett rubbed his hands together maniacally, clearly planning all the inappropriate, awkward conversations they were going to have.