James' POV
Glad that the meeting was short and I was able to slip out in under an hour, I watch Cody as he swings slightly in his sensory swing, reading up on autism and over stuffing his brain as usual.
He told me that once he settled with the fact that he was different beyond his DNA, everything started to make sense. His extra sensitivity towards stimulus, his emotional reactivity as well as his trouble understanding and interpreting social situations. I try my best to learn and listen as much as I can, even doing my own research to see how I can help , hoping to be the person that sticks around and supports Cody from his corner.
He catches me watching me and smiles at me, earning one in return, before I sit up, beckoning him over with a pat on the bed. He sets his phone down and settles in next to me, drawing his legs up and resting his head on his chin as he turns to look at me.
"I already brought it up during the meeting, so this is entirely up to you and what your comfortable with. I would love for you to start getting more involved with the pack. Maybe training with the commanders? Spend some time down at the nursery?" I offer, leaving the door open for him to decline if he's not ready, but I find him considering it for a moment before answering.
"Would I have to meet the elders? Or attend meetings?" He asks me, the aversion disgust towards those option obvious.
I shake my head, reaching towards him to give him a comforting hand, raising it to my lips for a kiss. "Of course not, you don't have to do anything until you are ready. If you want to wait until after your birthday, we can do that." I assure him, not wanting him to feel pressured into doing something he doesn't want.
I can see the relieve that settles around him like a blanket, his posture and smile softening as he thinks about it this time. "I kind of like the idea of waiting at the nursery. It would remind me of my mother. And I would be open to training with the commanders." He tells me and my heart swells with pride and grace, feeling blessed to be bound to someone so caring. So amazing.
I reach forward and pull Cody towards me, planting a kiss upon his forehead before resting my head atop of his. "Thank you for being willing to give things a try. Thank you for not taking off the minute I came to you." I tell him and he nuzzles into me, my shirt becoming damp with his answering tears as he nods and I chuckle peppering my sweet bean's head with kisses. "I'll make sure to set up some time for you guys to officially meet." I confirm when he pulls away.
"I look forward to it. They kind have a better memory of my parents than I do. It would be great to hear about them again." He confesses and I answer with understanding. We spend a few minutes just talking between the two of us before things get quiet, and I catch Cody gnawing at his lip as if contemplating.
"Penny for your thoughts?" I inquire and it takes a second for him to come back to realization of the world before he chuckles and rolls his eyes at me.
"They're worth a lot more than that." He sasses before answering. "But I was just thinking about the fact that I haven't met your wolf and I wonder what they're like." He tells me and with a shock, I realize that he's right. I've been so caught up with everything else going on, I've neglected to share with him my other half of the wolf he and Jessie are promised to.
'Oh, now you realize.' Sloan mutters, but I can tell that it means a lot to him that it's Cody that brought it up.
"That's true. Guilty as charged." I admit. "Would you like to meet him?" I ask, sure that Sloan would be more than welcome to tell him everything he wants to know himself. After a second of thinking about it, I get a shy nod, Cody's cheeks splashed with a rosy pink, his cuteness intoxicating.
With that confirmation, I let go of the reigns and give them to Sloan, wishing him luck before giving him the privacy to meet the love of our lives.
✨✨✨
Sloan's POV
I open my eyes and openly stare at the curly haired Omega before me, his eyes wide and curious behind his glasses.
"Hi." I greet my love, wishing I could somehow show him, me, not just show up mentally, but be able to change our appearance to how I see myself. While our Moon Goddess Selene paired one wolf spirit with a spirit descendent of the lost tribe of shaman and are placed into a physical body to share, we are not the same. But we're only expressed physically in one human form.
Something I've always hated.
Even so, Cody's eyes seem to soften as he reached out to hold my hand before answering. "Hi, I'm Cody." He tells me and I want to cry and laugh all at once because all I can feel is the tingling affirming sensation that Cody is it. He's the one destined to be the object of my love respect and desire.
"I'm Sloan. It's so good to finally meet you." I express, feeling a little flustered and horribly underdressed.
"You too. I really wanted to meet you ever since James told me that he had issues similarly to me. Just like how you and James are different, Jessie and I have always been different too. As weird as this sounds, before the accident, it was almost as if Jessie was Cassie and he was my big brother even though he was my wolf. I don't know if that makes sense." He tells me with an awkward laugh. I chuckle, shaking my head in amusement before I answer, my heart full and my cheeks warm as I finally get to start to know Cody. He reached for my hand, playing with it lightly as we talk, and I find myself jealous of Enza and the way I've seen him so flawlessly be able to express himself, wear what he wants and be free.
Though when I expressed these thoughts when I was younger, I was told I was selfish. That I was forgetting my place and my role.
But as I sit here sitting across from the man that I will soon be Mated and Marked to, I find myself resenting that. Because how is it selfish to want the people that you're falling in love with, the people that are supposed to know and love you inside and out, to want to know the real you.
I don't think it's selfish at all.
And that's what leads me to cut, Cody off, with an apologetic smile but a determination to give someone like me the assurance that they're not alone.
"Cody, is it okay if I meet him? Jessie? I'm enjoying talking to you and you haven't done anything wrong. I would just like to meet him, if that's okay." I tel him, worried he'll be upset or fight about it but he just laughs and shakes his head.
"No, actually, it's fine. He's been trying to convince me to fall asleep so he can meet you since you came out. I understand you guys need to connect. Just make sure we have our time." He tells me with a smile and I return the gesture, thankful once more to have such a compassionate and understanding partner.
I know the four of us aren't perfect but I think as long as we're there for each other and do our best to respect each other boundaries and dreams, we can make anything possible.
With a promise to spend time with him soon, I watch with probably the same awe I saw with Cody, as he switched the reigns, his shoulders rolling as I watch Jessie surface.
When he opens his eyes, they're black, a mirror towards my own, the only physical indicator that there's anything different. His onyx eyes are immediately on me, Cody's sweet and gentle smile replaced by one more cocky and playful, a devilish smirk dancing along pink lips as Jessie raises our still intertwined fingers towards his lips.
"Sloan, I've waited a thousand lifetimes to meet you, and I'll do so a thousand more." He tells me, his gaze intense, only outdone by the feel of my heart filling and squeezing all at once, my mouth falling speechless in the face of Jessie. Though I can't say for sure, the legend goes that wolves are reborn after they die, matched to a new soul every time. While the shaman soul changes every pairing, the wolf souls are said to be Mated for eternity. Through space, time, and death. While it's all just a myth and something passed down through the generations, I can't help but be lured by the words, his words and conviction making it true enough.
"I wish I could see you. The real you." Is my answer, not intentionally but it's true. Destined to be the supporting character of our own story, I find myself helpless as I offer a sad smile towards my Soulmate.
Jessie's eyes soften and his head lowers, his feelings on the matter clear as he clears his throat and tries to smile despite the pain in his eyes. He was shoved into a corner of Cody's mind for years. That takes a toll on anyone.
"It's definitely nice to have wishes. And believe me, I have my own, but I would rather spend this time with you treasuring what I do have, not regretting the things I don't." He tells me, raising a brow at me and I consider his words, guilt flooding me as I realize the selfishness indeed.
Just because I'm bitter at something doesn't mean I need to run on his parade and ruin his floats.
"You're right." I tell him, apologizing with a kiss to his temple, our hands still intertwined between us. "I don't want to talk about that anymore. Tell me about you. What's your favorite color?" I offer, just happy to soak up the feeling of comfort and warm just breathing in his scent of honey & daisies gives me.
His smirk is back, his posture relaxed and straight, his head tilted in curiosity as he watches me, his eyes laced with awe and arousal, my body taking notice of his attention. "It's green. And yours is purple." He tells me and I blink in surprise when I realize he's right.
"How do you know that?" I ask him, knowing James never divulged the information.
"At least one thing on James every day is purple. Whether it's his socks, shirt, watch band, hat, ring, whatever, there's always something purple. Knowing James as we do, it seemed obvious that it was a dedication to his wolf that didn't get the time in the sun he deserves." He answers, using one of his hands to push some of my hair back out of my face, my ears and cheeks tainted in vulnerability and passion as his words brush against my soul.
He sees me.
Even before meeting or me saying anything, he saw me.
Unsure I can feel any more swept away that I already am, I fail to formulate a response, which only worsens when a hand is suddenly on my chin, Jessie's face barely an inch from mine. His eyes are ablaze with lust and passion, his cocky grin gone, replaced by a burning needy look directed at my lips, his hand finding it's way to my back.
"I tried to make myself wait, but I can't help myself. You're beautiful. All of you, your smile, your eyes and the real you that exists inside your heart. If you don't want me to kiss you, then I won't. But, fuck, do I hope you want me to." He tells me, his eyes not leaving my hips as he slowly moves, shifting the two of us until I find myself behind lowered onto the bed, Jessie leaning down to cover his body with my own, his leg between mine, rubbing slightly against my now awakening cock.
"I want you to." I whisper, exposing my heart to Jessie who carley caressed it in his hands instead of squeezing as he can from me. My heart is safer in his hands than my own father, a thought that passed that I can't disagree with.
Jessie's answering smile is blinding and intoxicating, already drunk on him by the time his lips touch mine, one of his hands on my hip as our lips move together. I wrap my arms around his neck, leaning my head back as his lips move from my lips to my chin and down to my neck, peppering me with kisses along the way. "You're so beautiful Sloan. I know you only need one Mark to officiate our Mating, but I want to give you my own marking one day. Maybe when we figure out how to make the outside match the inside." Jessie mutters to me slowly as he kisses me, worships me, tastes me.
My mind is a jumbled mess by the time his mouth comes back to mine, our boners straining for each other, rubbing against each others legs softly, the friction both not enough and enough to drive me crazy.
The two of us spend the rest of the day like that, cuddled together switching between worshiping each other with our lips and hands and whispering sweet nothings to each other, sharing random facts and deepest secrets with each other in the safety of us. It almost feels like we're alone in the world as we lay there with each other, pretending as if these bodies are our own.
After Zee is nice enough to bring us dinner, catching up with Jessie for a movement before leaving, I find myself dozing on Jessie's chest, dreaming of a world where the two of us didn't feel like dirty little secrets in lives that are supposed to be half our own. Dream of a world where maybe, just maybe, we can be ourselves, inside and out where we can live each other fully and shamelessly.
As I lay there dozing, I find myself praying just this once, that we don't wake up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a bit of a mirror chapter to the one in Unattainable when Jessie and Sloan get to talk, but I feel like this makes a lot of sense. Is it foreshadowing? Is it angst? Stay tuned to see!
Thoughts?
Comments?
QOTD: What colors are your nails painted?