A Pebble for Lewis (Alaskan Pebble Gifters Book 1) Read online

  Penguin shifters mate for life. If I want to be with Lewis, I need to come to terms with what that truly means. Even if it terrifies me.

  “Last night you said you wanted to be with me. As a mate. Can we talk about that? How would we bring this up to our family and friends?”

  He straightens a little bit and gives me a tentative smile. “Would you… I mean… for me that wouldn’t be temporary.”

  I nod. “I know.”

  “But you said you didn’t want—”

  “Would it be all right if we told people we were friends at first? Just until your Pebble Gifting Season? I think it would go better if my moms had a chance to get to know you before we spring the mate thing on them. And it would allow us to follow all of the Pebble Gifting Season traditions. Wouldn’t your dad prefer that?”

  Or, in other words, would it quell the homicidal rage this situation is likely to inspire in his father? There’s no way he’s going to be okay with our relationship.

  “So if we waited to tell people until my Pebble Gifting Season, you’d be my mate? For life?” Lewis asks.

  I think about what spending the rest of my life with Lewis would mean. Waking up next to him every morning. Having children with him. Growing old together. The way penguin shifters mate for life has always appealed to me, if only in a hypothetical way. This isn’t hypothetical. Lewis is very real and waiting for my answer. So I tell him the truth.

  “I’m scared about what this will mean for our families and our businesses, but I definitely want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

  He strangles me with an enthusiastic hug. “Do you mean it, Todd? You’ll really be my mate?”

  I wrap my arms around him and close my eyes. “Yes.”

  11

  Lewis

  I know what my dad would say. “He’s making promises to you now, but he’ll break them.” My dad never lets any of the humans he dates get too close. But this is Todd, and I’m too happy right now to be worried.

  For right now, I want to make love to my mate.

  I slip my hands underneath the hem of Todd’s shirt. He’s wearing too many clothes. I slide my fingers up his body, lifting the fabric as I go. His stomach is all hard bumps and lines, and his chest is thick with white hair. I thread my fingers through it.

  He grabs his shirt by the neck and takes it off. I run my hands over his shoulders and upper arms.

  “You’re perfect,” I say.

  He gently sets me on the bed and lays down on top of me. I love how our naked chests feel flat against one another like this. So right. So good.

  He presses his lips to my cheek and my neck. “I’ll take you back to the kitchen. Just let me feel you first.”

  Now that he’s on top of me, I don’t care where we are, as long as he doesn’t stop.

  His mouth trails to my collarbone, and his whole body shifts down. He kisses my chest, then his mouth locks onto my nipple. He sucks at the sensitive nub, and a sharp pleasure sings through my body.

  “Mmm, I… oh!”

  He keeps sucking and nibbling until I’m squirming underneath him. I’m done with the teasing now. I want him. I reach down for the button of his jeans.

  He moves my hand away. “Not yet, love. Soon.”

  Why is he putting me off again? I’m about to argue with him, but he rolls to the side, and his hand caresses down my belly and past my cock, to ease in between my legs.

  “Will you bring your knees up for me?”

  I do as he says, and his fingers trace along the sensitive skin around the most private area of my body.

  “Please, Todd.”

  Looking into my eyes, he pushes his finger inside of me. He goes agonizingly slow, but the feeling of him penetrating me is still intense, and not just physically. I can’t imagine doing this with a stranger I met during Pebble Gifting Season. He’s not only inside my body, but inside my soul.

  “Thank you for trusting me. For letting me be with you like this,” he whispers. His finger is deep now and perfectly still, even though I want it to move. Why is he so careful with me? He slowly withdraws it and pushes it back in. I take in a sharp breath.

  “You like that?”

  I nod.

  He does it again. I grab at his shoulder. The sensations inside of me are so much, I need something to hold on to.

  “I’m going to add another, okay?” he says.

  I grip him harder. “Okay.”

  When he pushes a second finger in next to the first, it doesn’t hurt, not exactly. But his fingers aren’t small, and I’m suddenly not sure if I’ll be able to handle the size of the cock I felt through his jeans. This is why he wanted to go slow. I feel foolish.

  He gives me time to adjust to his second finger. Todd is so patient with me, even though I don’t know what I’m doing.

  “Is it all right if we stay here instead of going into the kitchen?” I ask.

  He kisses my forehead. “Of course.”

  It seems almost too long before he moves, but when he does, the sensation makes my toes curl. He watches me closely as he slides in and out. I rock against him, needing more. Every time he drags his fingers against something deep inside me, my whole body sings.

  “That’s right. Move with me, love. You feel so good. You have no idea how badly I want you.” He keeps whispering in my ear, and I don’t even know what he’s saying anymore. I’m lost in the thickness of his fingers and the solidity of his shoulders under my grip.

  And suddenly he’s gone.

  I open my eyes. “Todd?”

  He sits at the edge of the bed, unbuttoning his jeans. “I’m right here. Just getting the condom on, okay?” He stands, and his pants come down. His legs are covered in the same white hair as his chest, and his erection is hard and tented against his briefs. He pulls his underwear down, and his cock bobs back up, as pale as the rest of him with a pink tip. It’s larger than I imagined. The uncertainty from before returns. What if it hurts? What if I never get used to it?

  I try to hide my fear, but we’ve been friends for too long for me to fool Todd.

  He crawls back into bed without putting the condom on. “We don’t have to do this right now. There are lots of ways we could feel good together.”

  How can I ask him to be mine forever if I’m not even sure I can handle sex with him?

  “I want to try.” His fingers felt amazing. Maybe he if goes slow enough, it will be okay.

  “All right. But we can stop at any time, okay?” He rips the condom wrapper open with his teeth and slides it on his dick with ease, reminding me how many times he’s done this before. But knowing that is almost comforting now that we’re here. Other guys have taken him before, and Todd knows what he’s doing. He’s not going to hurt me.

  Or maybe he just won’t hurt me very much.

  “Look into my eyes. We’re going to take it slow.” He lifts my ankles and hooks them over his shoulders. “You can stop me at any time. Remember, we’ve got our whole lives to do this. There’s no need for you to push yourself further than you want to go today.”

  I exhale. “Okay. I’m ready.”

  He kisses my ankle. “No, you aren’t. But that’s okay. Let me loosen you up a bit.” My first instinct is to argue with him, but I stop myself. His tone isn’t condescending, it’s tender. Maybe I need to be patient.

  He massages my legs—starting with the tops of my thighs, moving around to the sensitive skin right underneath my ass. The whole time his eyes stay locked on mine. This moment with him feels as intimate as when his fingers were inside me. When his hands move to my asscheeks, my need for him grows again.

  My whole world becomes his hands and his eyes. He’s pressing, kneading, slipping his thumbs in between my crack to tease my opening. My hips move of their own accord, wriggling and gyrating against him. Before long, I forget all about my fear. I’m too caught up in him. As he slides his fingers into me again, I hear the squish of my slick.

  “Fuck, you’re so wet.” He leans down
to kiss my lips, pushing my legs up with him, until I’m bent in half. His kiss is feather-light, more of an endearment than anything else.

  “I’m going to remove my fingers, and then I’m going to penetrate you, okay?”

  I nod. As long as his eyes stay locked on mine, everything will be fine. I’m safe here under his body and his gaze. When he pulls his fingers out, I feel empty, but something larger with more give strokes up and down over my entrance. And then it pushes in. Just an inch, but it’s too much. I squeeze my eyes shut, and my entire body freezes.

  “Stay with me, Lewis. C’mon, love,” he whispers.

  I open my eyes. Todd’s still there, still staring back at me, not only as big as a mountain, but as solid too. He stays rock-still for so long, his size doesn’t feel as overwhelming anymore. He inches forward, and my first instinct is to panic again, but the feeling doesn’t last. Todd’s looking into my eyes—reminding me that I’m safe.

  He claims me inch by inch, with a steadfast control, making it clear I’m a lot more important to him than his lust. While I want him to be wild with me in the future, in this moment, I’m grateful. At a certain point he stops and gives me another kiss.

  “Are you… are you all the way inside me?” I ask.

  He shakes his head. “I don’t think you can take all of me today. We’ll work up to it, okay?”

  I wish he was wrong, but I’m already so full.

  He begins to withdraw. I grab for his shoulders, not ready for him to leave me, but he pushes back in—and oh my God.

  “Todd,” I whine.

  He chuckles and does it again. A flash of pleasure shoots through me. Todd rocks into me gently at first, but as my fingernails dig into his shoulders and my hips buck to meet his, he speeds up, and we fit so perfectly I want to cry. His thrusts are fast and rough, never pushing past the point of his first, but it doesn’t matter because he’s deep enough to find that electric place inside of me that explodes every time he hits it.

  I’m writhing underneath him, sweaty and needy and loud. I’m begging for more. I’m screaming when he slams into me, clawing at him and the sheets. I can’t control myself, and it feeds something feral inside of Todd. As his hips snap, he growls, gripping me so hard it hurts. He grabs for my cock, pumping it in time with his thrusts, and I’m lost. I clamp down on him hard, spurting my release into his hand. It’s a ridiculous amount. I might be embarrassed if the pleasure wasn’t white-hot through my entire body—if I wasn’t shaking from the power of it. He roars, and his hips pick up into a desperate, jerky pace until he slumps over, gasping for breath.

  I can’t help but laugh. I guess that’s what I do in the afterglow. Even though my ass is smarting from his ridiculously big cock, I still can’t believe how good that was. Why do penguin shifters wait to have sex until they’re twenty-three?

  Todd smiles and turns his head to kiss my ankle again. “You okay there?”

  “Yeah. Is it always that good?” I ask.

  He shakes his head. “No, it isn’t. Only with you, Lewis. Only with you.”

  12

  Todd

  While I’m still soft inside him, I grab a tissue and wipe up the cum on his stomach.

  He laughs. “Oh my God. It’s on your neck too. And in your hair.”

  I narrow my eyes. “You’re messing with me. It is not.”

  He dissolves into a fit of giggles that are a little too much for my over-sensitive dick. “It is! Here, bend over and give me another tissue.”

  I do as he says. He wipes at the side of my head and shows off the drop of cum.

  “Good Christ. Your dick is like a fire hydrant.”

  He giggles again, which means I have to pull out. My dick can’t take it anymore. He lowers his legs and scans my body, dabbing at different parts of my skin. He grabs at my shoulders, now very sore from some sound thrashing, compliments of his fingernails. I’d complain, but the way he clawed me while I was inside him was hotter than hell.

  Maybe penguin shifters are wilder in bed than I thought.

  “Come back down here. I need to snuggle with my mountain,” he says.

  His mountain. Fuck if that doesn’t make me melt. I lay on top of him. His eyes widen for a moment because I’m far too big for this, and I know it. I roll us both until he’s the one on top. He relaxes, resting his head on my shoulder.

  “I like sex.” He idly runs his fingers through my chest hair.

  “Good. I think we should have a lot of it.” Strangely, sex isn’t what’s on my mind right now, even though that was easily the best sex of my life. “Tell me about Pebble Gifting Season. How would an alpha go about making you theirs?”

  He lets out a contented little sigh. “Well, you do have a slight advantage. With being amazing in bed and ridiculously attractive and all.

  I cover his mouth with my thumb. “You don’t understand. I don’t want to get by or coast. I want your Pebble Gifting Season to be so good that when we’re a hundred years old and can’t remember a damn thing, you still remember how I wooed you.”

  He slides off my body and sits up, staring into my eyes. His lip trembles. “I love you so much.”

  I smile. “Is that why you sprayed cum all over me?”

  He laughs.

  I grab his hand and bring it to my chest. “I’m serious. Tell me about Pebble Gifting Season. I know the necklace bit, seeing how that’s my job. And I know you guys walk around the city every night meeting each other. But what do alphas do to win over omegas? How do I choose a pebble? Help me out here.”

  “It isn’t for two more years.”

  I raise both of my eyebrows. “Are you trying to tell me alpha penguin shifters don’t start preparing for this the moment they present? Because that’s bullshit. What would I be preparing right now if I was a penguin shifter?”

  His shoulders tense. He’s nervous to tell me. Maybe he thinks I won’t do it.

  “C’mon. I’m going to expect you to deal with my crazy polar bear shifter friends. Tell me.”

  His fingers play with my chest hair again. “Well, you’re right. From the moment they present, they go searching every weekend for the perfect pebble. Most search for years before they find the right one.”

  Shit. That’s intense.

  “How will I know which one is right?”

  He winces. “Well… if you were a penguin shifter, you’d gnaw it with your beak in your penguin form. But you’re not. So… I don’t know. It’s supposed to speak to your soul. If you find another soul it speaks to, you’re fated to be with them.”

  And penguin shifters say we make irrational decisions. They choose who they’re going to spend their whole lives with based on a pretty rock.

  I can’t think like that if I’m going to be a good mate to Lewis.

  “Okay. I’ll do my best. Are there any other customs I should know about? What do you do when you spend a night with a penguin shifter during Pebble Gifting Season?”

  His body tenses up again. “We share our Pebble Gifting Portfolios. You can look up templates online. It’s… a lengthy document. It has a full outline of our finances, family tree, genetic tests, life goals, and grades—”

  “You mean my grades from high school?” I ask in disbelief.

  “Well… if you were a penguin shifter, you’d be in college too. But high school is probably fine.”

  Damn it. There’s no way I’m going to be able to put together a decent portfolio. I’m not good at anything penguin shifters think are important.

  He withdraws his hand and scoots to the edge of the bed. “It isn’t a big deal. You don’t need to do any of that. It’s fine.”

  That’s the biggest bullshit I’ve ever heard in my life. It clearly means the world to him, and there’s no way I’m going to fuck this up.

  “I’ll do it. I swear to you. But maybe I could add other stuff in with my grades. Like my business’s quarterly statements?” Ever since my alpha mother took a step back from the shop to pursue her writing, the finances have
been solely my responsibility. And things have gone pretty well.

  His eyes light up. “Yeah. That would be good. My dad would like that.”

  “Your dad is going to read it?”

  He nods. “Yeah. It’s customary for the family of the omega to read over the documents before the bonding ceremony. Most omegas won’t bond with an alpha unless their family approves.”

  In other words, I have two years to win over his dad, and those documents better shine like the top of the Chrysler building.

  I pull him back on top of me. “Okay. I’ll start working on that stuff. Is there anything else I should know?”

  He kisses my chest. “That you’re my favorite person?”

  I hold him close. I can do this for Lewis, even if I have to travel far outside my comfort zone. Didn’t he just do that for me?

  “Not your favorite mountain?” I tease.

  He laughs. “That too.”

  13

  Todd

  One Year Later…

  I am exactly on time. Not a minute early, not a minute late. Eight o’clock on the dot. According to Lewis, punctuality is a sign of respect amongst penguin shifters. If a penguin shifter is late to a meeting, it’s considered a passive aggressive slight.

  Unfortunately, Lewis’s omega dad answers the door, still in his starched green apron from the grocery store.

  “Do you have plans with Lewis?” he asks. Even though he knows damn well that I do.

  “We’re going out with some friends.”

  He folds his arms across his chest. “You mean your friends.”

  “Uh, yeah. They’re Lewis’s friends now too.” That’s not exactly true. Lewis and I have been slowly easing our friends and family into our friendship for the last year, but they’re still struggling.

  Struggling may be a huge understatement. Mad as hell may be more accurate.