Marly's eyes narrowed. "How old are you, mate of mine?" He said.
"How old are you?" Trent asked, putting off the inevitable.
"Twenty six," Marly said and Trent kept his groan to himself. Marly was a pup in comparison to him. His cute little mate looked barely legal and would probably continue to do so for decades. Wolf shifters lived anything up to 1000 years, although of course a lot of them were killed off thanks to hunters, accidents and challenges. They could heal quickly but nothing stopped a bullet to the brain, or a slash across the jugular.
"Ninety four," Trent said, watching the expression on Marly's face. He knew he didn't look older than twenty five but he'd looked that way for a lot of years. The play of emotion crossing Marly's face was almost comical. Shock, then curiosity, and then, fucking hell, his mate was laughing and Trent wasn't a hundred percent why.
"I knew you were an old dude, but I didn't realize you were ancient," Marly said, cackling away. "Oh you poor thing to go saddling yourself with a pup like me. You really should have kept your teeth to yourself. Your life would have been so much easier if you'd just taken my ass without bonding to me."
Trent growled at that and he reached up, pushing Marly back onto the bed, covering him with his body. Body heat equaled stiff dick, it was a natural reaction in Trent now and he expected it. But he had something to say and he was pleased to see he had Marly's full attention.
"I've been glad I bit you from the moment I did it," he said fiercely, staring into Marly's bright blue eyes, willing him to understand the feelings he couldn't verbalize. "We only get one mate, you know that, and there was no way I was capable of staying away once I knew you existed. Yes I tried but I have waited a freaking eternity for you. You're mine and I never want to be parted from you again – Never! Do you understand what I'm saying? You're mine and I'm fucking over the moon about it!" Growling the last words against Marly's full mouth, Trent gave into the temptation those sinful pink lips offered him.
Never one for kissing men, or many women for that matter, Trent was addicted to it with Marly. He felt the moment his mate surrendered to him, the muscles going plaint, a hand cupping the back of his head, the mouth opened accepting everything that Trent could offer. And that sweet body flexing beneath his trying to get as much skin coverage as possible, Trent could never get enough of that.
His wolf pacified by Marly's submission, Trent could afford to take his time. His mate might laugh at him for being older, but in Trent's head that just made him more experienced and while most of his experience with men had been of the rough and tumble variety, he still knew how to convey with his body the feelings he couldn't express with words. When Marly started to beg, his body trembling under Trent's touch, Trent just redoubled his efforts. By the time he finally pushed his cock deep inside Marly's welcoming hole, Marly screamed.
And that was exactly the response Trent had been aiming for. Flipping Marly's legs over his shoulders Trent plunged hard into his mate's heat, every thrust reaffirming their bond and his need to know that his mate was alive, healthy and with him in every way. His only regret, and it really wasn't a regret at all, was that Marly was too perfect, too hot, too submissive and fuck it all, after all of the buildup, Trent just wouldn't last. When even thoughts of maggot infested meat couldn't hold back his need to coat his mate's insides with come, Trent grabbed hold of Marly's cock. Two quick twists and Marly tumbled into orgasm, shouting out Trent's name, with Trent following quickly behind.
His arms trembling with the effort of keeping his bulk off of Marly's smaller body, Trent looked down to see Marly's eyes closed. His little mate had passed out. Trent felt a twinge in his heart that he'd never felt before – a warmth, a glow and as he carefully moved to one side and took his mate in his arms, he had the strangest feeling that this was love felt like.
Chapter Thirteen
By the time they had got the bike packed up, Trent was ready to roar at something. It seemed Marly had more than a bit of a clothes fetish and trying to get the man to pick out just three basic outfits, that were rugged enough for the bike and anything else they might do, was a lesson in futility. It wasn't until Trent threatened to go and buy him three new sets of clothes himself, that Marly hastily picked up the first three sets of clothing he'd sorted out for himself and flung them at his mate. As far as Trent was concerned all Marly needed was his leathers, two pairs of jeans and a pair of boots. But Marly had shirts that ran every spectrum of the rainbow, and the boy had a hard time working out which ones to take.
Toiletries was the next battle. Lord, Trent knew how much he loved Marly's soft hair, but did it require the entire contents of a chemist shop to make it so? To hear Marly talk about it, it would certainly seem so and that was without body wash, moisturizer and a shit load of other stuff that Trent had never heard of. Trent only had two saddlebags on his bike, and to cart everything on Marly's must-have list would have taken a truck. When Marly started to get snippy with him, Trent kissed the man soundly to shut him up, picked up one bottle of conditioner and the body wash that he personally loved the smell of, and declared that was all they had the room for.
"I don't see how I can be expected to have a good time, if half the stuff I need is being left behind." Trent looked over to see his gorgeous mate was pouting over some bottles left on the bed and decided his mate needed another kiss-fest.
"You may be pretty," Trent said gently when Marly was quiet and lust filled again, "But you don't need all that junk to be the sexiest man I've ever seen."
"Only the sexiest man, ha," Marly said, picking up the neglected bottles and taking them back into the bathroom. "So there's still women out there better looking than me? I'll keep that in mind, old man."
Trent suppressed a growl, but only just. His little mate was driving him insane and Trent couldn't work out what was wrong with him. Searching their mate link, Trent could pick up anxiety and a splash of fear. Shit. Hoping that Marly wasn't afraid of him or of riding on the back of the bike, Trent quickly picked up the rest of Marly's clothes that had been left on the bed, and hung them up in the overflowing closet. He'd learned early on that his little mate liked things kept tidy.
When Marly came back into the bedroom Trent grabbed him and sat down on the bed, pulling his mate onto his lap.
"What's really bothering you?" He said as gently as he knew how. Trent didn't want to make his mate any more upset but if Marly kept on the way they were going, he was worried that they were going to have a full scale fight.
Trent could see that Marly was framing the word nothing, before it even came out of his mouth. "Uh huh," he said quickly. "Tell me the truth little wolf. What's got you so worried you are snapping at me? It's not about your clothes is it, ‘cos you know we only have a little bit of room on the bike?"
Marly shivered in his arms, and shook his head, but Trent couldn't see the man's face because it was covered by his long blond hair. Holding him snugly with one hand, Trent gently cupped his mate's head with the other, turning up to him. He was shocked to see the beginning of tears in Marly's bright blue eyes and he immediately hated whatever thoughts had put them there.
"Tell me," he urged, reminding his wolf to be patient. Nobody should be allowed to cause Marly any tears, and wanting to go and kill something in response to the upset was a standard Alpha response.
"You will bring me back here, won't you? After our trip, I mean," Marly said in a small voice and Trent was stunned all over again. Marly was crying because of him and okay, maybe his mate was a bit more astute than Trent had given him credit for, because there had been a small part of him that just wanted to get Marly out on the road and never come back.
Forcing those thoughts aside, Trent said what he had to. "Of course, little wolf. I know this is your home, and your things. I won't make you leave them behind. I wouldn't do that to you."
"It's why I had so much trouble sorting out my clothes and stuff," Marly confessed, a glimmer of hope replacing the tears. "I thought once we got out on the open road, you would never want to come back, and you're Alpha, and I wouldn't have any say and … "