Delaying Destiny

6. Truth

Orianna Reid

Orianna didn't have a cellphone. So there was no way for her to tell Mason where she was as she trudged back to his apartment at the very earliest crack of dawn. She had spent the entire night speaking with Rhea, getting a crash course on what exactly was expected of her now that she agreed to be a surrogate for the Alpha and Luna. It was a simple story because it was more or less the truth. She would be a surrogate, carrying their child under the watchful eye of the pack's witches and her existence would only be on a need-to-know basis. She would live in the packhouse as a guest, not as an Omega, until she gave birth. And then she would be free to choose exactly where she would fit in with Whistling Winds.

But even the truth in its purest state would be hard to swallow. Not to mention the fact that Orianna had to come clean about who she really was to Mason. Her heart was in knots as she let herself into the apartment, using Mason's own key that she had swiped before she left. It was equally surprising and heartwarming to see him standing in the middle of his apartment, texting furiously. He was still in his sleeping clothes - or well, the pajama pants he had slept in and nothing else. He looked up at the sound of her arriving, the clear wash of relief in his expression nearly sent Orianna to her knees.

"Thought you skipped out on me.." He said a little breathlessly, as if he was panicked by the very thought. His dark skin flushed at the admittance as he put his phone down, abandoning his half-written text. He ran a hand over his head, a sheepish smile on his face, "Or at the very least thought you stole my key."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Orianna smiled softly, holding out his key and placing it in his hand. The warmth of his touch drew her in and she caught herself staring. She could feel her heart beating out of her chest, her wolf practically howling for contact. She thought the noise would split her head in two.

As if he felt it too, Mason took her hand and drew her closer, wrapping his arms around her instinctively, protectively. There were no words as he held her there, pressing her thinly clothed body against his bare chest. The skin-to-skin contact made Orianna positively weak. It wasn't the same carnal physical need she felt with Jasper; the magic-induced pairing couldn't imitate the emotional connection of fated mates. And it wasn't the same unsatisfactory emotional begging she felt with Saravie either. With Saravie, they were both starved for attention, desperate for love when their mates fell short. No, this was the pure, unmatched feeling of finding something you never knew you needed, like feeling complete in the universe. This was fate.

She looked up, finding his gray hues boring into her as if he, too, was overwhelmed with the feeling. His lips drew hers in, begging to close the gap between them both. Funny how just a night apart after meeting drove them into such need. And she couldn't stop herself when he finally kissed her, enveloping her with his taste and his tongue. It was heavenly, catastrophic, soul-shattering, life-changing. Everything felt right in a way that Orianna never thought life could be right. It was as if all the horrible things that she had endured the last few years were insignificant, just stepping stones she had to take to get to him.

It took every fiber in her being to stop, placing a hand on his chest to his silent protest. But he looked at her like he knew something was bothering her. And he waited quietly, patiently as she gathered her thoughts.

"My name is Orianna." She blurted out, biting down on her lip as she let the truth coat her tongue, "Orianna Reid."

He didn't respond and he didn't let her go. Instead, he stepped backwards with her still in his arms, sitting down on the couch and dragging her onto his lap. She settled down easily, looking at him as she gathered the courage to continue.

"My name is Orianna," she repeated, feeling her fingertips tremble slightly before she took his free hand in her own, clutching the appendages to steady herself. But she never broke eye-contact, as she admitted, "I ran away from Astral Twilight after being accused of murdering my Luna. And though I was exonerated, no one looked at me the same way and I felt alone in my own pack."

Sparks of recognition lit his eyes, surely he remembered hearing about the story three years ago. But he still didn't respond.

"When I met you, I was scared and I lied because I thought I'd get run off before I even got a chance." She exhaled carefully, feeling her jaw clench at the admittance, "And by the time I realized... who you were to me, I was already so deep into my story that I thought I didn't have a choice but to keep going with it."

"But last night, I realized that I wanted to stay, that I wanted to be with you that way we are meant to be." She felt his grip on her tighten, "And I knew I couldn't do that without telling the truth."

Orianna then recounted her meeting with Rhea, hurriedly explaining her condition for staying in the pack. She felt her heart shatter slightly when she said she would have to stay at the packhouse, away from him. But nothing prepared her for the steely look on his face when she said she would be carrying the Alpha and Luna's pup.

"Mason?" She looked at him with concern, wondering what thoughts were swirling in his mind as he processed her agreement to surrogacy.

But when he looked back at her, he sighed deeply, "I don't know how I'm going to cope with you carrying someone else's pup instead of mine. But if that's what it takes to keep you here with me, I will support you every step of the way."

Relief and happiness flooded through Orianna, letting herself place a kiss on her mate as she felt every bit of stress melt from her body, "I'm so sorry for lying."

"It's okay." Mason reached up to stroke her hair, tucking a lock behind her ear, "I understand why you did. But promise me from now on that we'll always be honest with each other."

"Of course, I promise." Orianna smiled, resting her forehead against his, "I promise to always do whatever it takes to keep us together."

He kissed her again, groaning with pleasure as she repositioned herself to straddle him. The warm pooling in her stomach made her grind her hips against him, relishing the effect she had on him. Already, she could feel his erection settling between the folds of her p*ssy lips and she cursed the thin fabric between them. Mason lifted her, circling her legs around his waist as he carried her to the bedroom. Ideally, she would want their first time together to be in a bed they shared, not his full-sized, bachelor-satisfactory one. But if she resisted him any longer, she was worried she would implode from s****l dissatisfaction.

Mason was endlessly tender as he laid her down, kissing from her lips, down her neck, and to her collarbone. As he lifted her shirt over her head and tossed it aside, he admired the small tattoos she had etched on both sides, swirls of stars and lines that she had gotten on impulse when she was young. He traced them with his tongue and she shivered with anticipation.

He took his time kissing further, down the plane of her flat stomach and rolling the waistband of the borrowed boxers as he dragged his tongue down the crevice of her inner thigh. Her mind was going blank, his flat, wet tongue pressing fully against her exposed entrance. The slight contact against the sensitive bundle of nerves that lay at the top was sending sparks through her brain. When was the last time she was touched like this? She couldn't even begin to formulate an answer. Surely nothing felt as good as Mason's mouth on her.

He peppered her inner thighs with his lips, pressing them fully against her burning flesh. He wasn't teasing her, no, he was dragging out every bit of pleasure he was giving her as if he knew exactly what she needed. Before she could even utter a begging whimper, his tongue began working inside her like magic. She could have lost herself right then and there from the raw, devouring worship he laid upon her, her hands gripping the sheets as if it were the only thing grounding her in the moment.

"So damn sweet," Mason growled into her, his eyes darkening with wild possessiveness, "and only mine to taste."

"Yes, Mason, only yours." She managed to breathe out.

Her words edged him on, bringing his large, slightly rough hand to insert into her. As his tongue swirled around her cl*t, his began working one and then two fingers inside her, crooked slightly to rub at her most desired spot. Her p*ssy pulsed with pleasure, knowing she was mere moments away from satisfaction. Mason was not greedy and gave it to her with his mouth and hand alone. He sucked and matched his pulsing tempo with her orgasm, elongating the feeling like a professional musician ending a symphony.

It was such a pure act of giving that Orianna did not even have to think about recovering before she tugged him upwards, wanting to feel fulfilled in a way only he could give her.

Wordlessly, knowingly, Mason shed his own pajama pants and nestled between her legs. Her eyes were liquid amber as he pushed into her, his thick member moving inch by inch into her with just enough resistance to make them both squirm. She was made for him, surely, but it had been years since she took anything except her own fingers and the adjustment was threatening to unravel her just as quickly as the first time.

Mason, too, looked to be struggling to keep it together. She felt him hardening and lengthening even more so when he finally settled within her at the hilt. His fangs were elongated, a primal instinct that he could not help as he began moving within her, feeling her slick walls coat him with her pleasure and made each thrust harder and deeper than the last. His lips collided with hers, his scent drowning her senses as she lost herself in bliss.

"Mine." Mason swallowed hard, as deep in her as her body allowed, "Forever."

Her legs wrapped around him as she crashed her lips into his, "Yours. Forever."

He ground against her, feeling the very back of her p*ssy as she shattered beneath him, their submission to each other arching her body against him more. Mason stayed there, letting her orgasm peak before he began moving again slowly and deliberately. One more, she allowed her voice to flow through his mind, please.

Mason slid out of her, urging her to turn onto her stomach, closing her legs underneath him as he repositioned himself outside her entrance. In this position, her sensitive cl*t rubbed against the slightly rough bedsheets. He leaned forward, grasping her neck just below her jaw as he inserted into her now-tighter entrance and began taking her once more. Neither of them would last long in this position; she was far too tight and he was so close to the edge that he needed to ensure she got her one more before he got ahead of himself.

His other hand found her breast, holding her so closely that their skin ignited in every place they touched.

So...close... her voice was thick in his head, his other senses dulling as he stuck his nose into the nape of her neck, inhaling deeply as he picked up the pace. His fangs involuntarily scraped against the sensitive, thin skin there. Rose was begging for him to mark her, her feral instincts desperate to meet her mate. But Mason found some semblance of logic as he put his fangs away, still allowing himself to bite her as he exploded within her. She felt the thick c*m shooting within her as she, too, let go of her sanity.

He collapsed on her momentarily, Orianna enjoyed the feeling of all his towering warmth and muscle on her before he rolled onto his side, keeping her in his arms as he did so. She sighed contentedly, placing an absent-minded kiss on his forearm as he held her.

Orianna knew that no matter what they had to face, this was worth every effort. She hadn't known just how powerful fated mates could be and she even found a worm of understanding in her heart when she thought of Luciana. Orianna could not even find it in her in that moment to be jealous that Mason had once had this with someone else. It was like he said, this was his second-chance too.

Anthony Mason Whittaker

Forgiving Orianna was as easy as breathing. Some part of him knew she had been hiding something from him and before he could even consider being upset, the sound of her true name in his ears eased every part of him. It was the barrier that had kept him from fully feeling their matehood. He knew what fated mates felt like and perhaps if he had never met Lana, he would have accepted the watered down form of it that he had felt when Orianna first introduced herself under false pretenses. But perhaps that was another silver lining of second-chance mates, the experience that allowed them to build something much stronger.

Rothans was desperate to meet the real Rose, his own mate, who was still partially kept from him until they marked each other. But the witch, Dorothea, was explicit in telling Orianna that they could not mark each other until after the pup was born. The mark would only encourage Orianna's body to reject the implanted fetus, especially since it would be made up of two foreign wolf genes. Though it would be a struggle not to mark her for nine months, Mason was nothing but patient.

At least, he could be patient to mark her. Taking her into his bed was a completely different story.

With the full realization of their matehood, Mason wasted no time in exploring her lithe, perky body in every sense of the word. They were meant to go to the packhouse to get a start on the surrogacy and for Mason to start his duties for the day, but it would take nothing short of a miracle to get them out of the apartment in that moment.

But the incessant buzzing of his mindlink as well as the hum of his vibrating phone was enough to keep him from falling asleep after their morning rouse. He groaned, keeping his mindlink closed but dragging him (and his mate) out of bed to retrieve his phone. The screen lit with messages and missed calls from the Alpha and Luna as well as a few of his comrades, demanding their presence.

A beep of the screen slid the messages down as he got yet another from Reiner, We're outside.

Orianna peeked over and rolled her eyes, "I guess hiding out here is out of the question?"

Mason chuckled, pressing a kiss to the side of her head before releasing her, "Maybe we should runaway. Heard you're pretty good at it."

Orianna scoffed and shoved him aside, jokingly barging passed him to get changed. Before she could get away, he dragged her back by the waist and lifted her as she kicked and scream-laughed to be let go.

A deep voice resounded from the other side of the door, "Count of three and we're coming in!"

"Everyone better have pants on!" Felix's voice quipped.

Orianna's squealed again with laughter before Mason put her down, letting her retreat the bedroom to get dressed. He managed to pull on his pajama pants and unlocked the door, opening it just as Reiner and Felix were readying themselves to muscle through. Reiner looked at him knowingly, waggling his eyebrows, "Sorry, are we interrupting?"

"Clearly." Mason sneered good-naturedly, keeping his body in the doorway so they couldn't come in, "We'll be right out."

"What? We can't say good morning? Won't offer us some coffee?" Felix tried to stick his neck over Mason's shoulder, his eyes glued to the closed bedroom door.

"Not on your life." Mason shoved them backwards, "We'll be right out."

They groaned and fake pounded on the door as he locked it again and turned back towards the bedroom. This was the most he'd felt like himself in years and Mason couldn't help the grin on his face as the bedroom door opened again. Orianna stood, the picture of casual beauty, in a clean pair of butter-soft leggings and a white v-neck as she tied her hair up, "Ready?"

"Almost." He charged towards her and lifted her again much to her delight. Maybe they had a little more time to kill.