Tal turned and looked out over the throng of people. Silence reigned for but a moment before thunderous applause, cheers, whistles, and hurrahs sounded around the room. Tal smiled fondly, feeling in that instant a deep-seated love and protective instinct sweep over him for the people of Tumaro. As Alpha Queen, he would now be partly responsible for them. He would help to ensure they had homes, jobs, food, transportation, safety, healthy families, and good lives. A large task, slightly daunting, but not impossible and Tal embraced it with both hands.
"And that is why you were chosen to be my mate, my queen, the Alpha Queen to my Alpha King. The other part of me, the better part of me. It's because of your big and all-encompassing heart,"
Blaze whispered through their mating link.
Tal smiled, his heart thudding wildly in his chest as his groin swelled even more. He couldn't understand how the Tumaron Alpha could turn him on so quickly and make him feel so much, but he wouldn't trade it for all the Malui in Edifice.
"Thank you for believing in me."
The return of the link with his mate, allowing him to speak so freely and privately with Blaze, filled Tal with gratitude. He found himself doubly thankful for the crash that had brought him to his mate… and beyond appreciative for his mate.
"You're welcome, love,"
Blaze responded and squeezed Tal's hand before helping him back to his seat.
They turned to smile at their subjects and began listening to their pleas for help and requests for judgment to be rendered in their disputes.
They were a united front.
A mated Alpha pair.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Tal woke up alone. He sat up quickly and looked around for Blaze, concerned that perhaps the events of the past few days had been all a dream. Sometimes events, people, and places got jumbled up in his head, especially when he first woke up. He would find himself wondering where the two young teens from his dreams were or if he would see the beautiful Vermithian couple when he stepped out of his bedroom door. And now, now there were images of a tall, broad shouldered, gorgeous Tumaron Alpha King with blazing blue eyes thrown into the mix. Happy he had a few minutes by himself, he got everything straight, remembering which events from his dreams had actually happened and which were just the fanciful notions of his unique brain.
His eyes took in the décor of his royal bedroom, seconds before his stomach roiled and he leapt from the bed and rushed to the bathroom and became violently ill. The door to the sitting room opened and closed and he heard voices, but he couldn't even begin to be worried about who had entered and who they were looking for. Too busy throwing up everything he'd ever eaten in his life, and a few vital internal organs as well, he was so grateful when it ended that after flushing, he laid his flushed face against the cold floor tile and whispered prayers of thanks to the One, the Two, the Three, the Four, every single numbered deity up until ten. He heard footsteps and then his mate's deep throaty chuckle.
"I came to see if you wanted breakfast in bed or out at the table in the sitting room, or even downstairs in the formal dining room with the others who live here in the palace, but perhaps you would rather I brought it into the bathroom for you and served it on the floor?" Amusement laced his voice.
"Shut the hell up you mangy wolf and help me to the bed," Tal grumbled miserably, groaning when Blaze walked over and lifted him into his arms. "Where were you? I woke up and you weren't there."
"I had an early morning meeting with some of the Elders and leaders of the different branches of the kingdom," Blaze placed Tal gently upon the bed.
Tal gasped. "Was I supposed to be there?" He worried he'd already screwed up in his duties as Alpha… Mate.
Yeah, he liked that title much better. He'd have to remember to suggest it to Blaze so it could be changed on the books.
Blaze chuckled. "No, babe, you never sit in on what is pretty much considered a diplomatic meeting, mostly you're in meetings that deal with Tumaro only."
Blaze walked back into the sitting room, presumably to get food or to call for it, and Tal thought about what his mate had just said. Indignation flooded his body and he shoved back the covers on the bed and hurriedly pulled on the first pair of pants and a shirt he could find, both were lying on top of the large oak trunk that sat at the foot of their bed… and both belonged to Blaze, which meant that Tal swam in them. He probably looked like a little boy playing dress-up in his father's clothes, but he didn't care in that moment, he had a bone to pick with his mate and his entire antiquated thought process. With one hand holding up the oversized pants he stormed into the sitting room, ignoring the others there, his eyes focusing in on his mate who stood at the travel food cart preparing a plate for him.
"So wait, let me make sure I'm understanding this correctly. As the Alpha Queen I'm your equal in all things dealing with our people, the Tumarons, but I'm not important enough, or smart enough, to deal with matters of the galaxy? What sort of fucked up bullshit is that, Blaze? Anything happening in the galaxy that affects Tumaro means I should be in every, single, fucking meeting from here until the day I fucking die as the fucking Alpha Queen and your fucking mate!" he yelled, his chest heaving, anger flooding him as he faced his mate.
"Maybe we should go," a hesitant voice said and Tal turned to see who spoke, groaning mentally when he saw Buck, Percy, Elder Mailon, Josie, Gregor, Rico, and another man who seemed to be staring at his stomach intently.
"Hi guys. Sorry about that, um, pregnancy… um… hormones. You know carrying a full load inside of me, they've got my body all haywire and woo-wee-woo-wee," he laughed, making the noise used for a mentally unstable person and slowly backed away from the room towards the door. "You all stay. I'll go into the other room and hang myself from embarrassment." Without another word he turned and raced back into the bedroom, Blaze fast on his heels, stopping to address their guests.
Blaze uttered a quick word of apology and everyone left, Elder Mailon saying a final statement before shutting the door. Tal waited for his mate to finally appear and realized he should probably talk to his old friend and see if he could call him 'Mails' like he'd been calling him since they were kids. He paced back and forth in the middle of the room, wringing his hands together and biting his lower lip nervously. Tal looked up when Blaze entered the bedroom and firmly closed the door. He swallowed when Blaze twisted the lock on the door and began to stalk him across the room. He tried to read Blaze's face and see if the other man was upset with him or if maybe, just maybe, only annoyed.
"We had a conversation when we first mated about my needing to be respected in front of my people. Do you remember that conversation Talon?" Blaze asked menacingly.
Tal could do nothing but nod.
"Do you think what you just did showed respect in front of them?" Blaze stepped over to the trunk at the foot of the bed.
Tal swallowed thickly and wondered what the trunk held and if it would hurt him. Did Tumarons beat their mates when they were upset?
"I'm not going to beat you," Blaze responded with a mild chuckle.
He then turned around and Tal got a look at what the bigger man held in his hands. In one he held a blindfold, two pairs of leather restraints, and a silk tie, in the other he held a small paddle.
"I am going to discipline you, however."
Tal shivered, though from arousal or fear he couldn't be sure.
Tal looked at the items in his mate's hands and then back up. He and Blaze had never tried this before and Tal didn't really consider himself into the whole dominant/subservient game, scene, whatever they called it. However, some part of him must really like it. He looked down at his traitorous cock, moments before the organ in question left a very apparent wet spot on the front of Blaze's pants. Blaze's nostrils flared, his eyes closed and he savored the smell of something. Tal wondered what?
"I can smell your arousal from here love and it smells… delicious, absolutely, delicious," Blaze stated obviously having heard Tal's unspoken question in his mind.
"Really?" Tal breathed.
Blaze walked closer. Tal released his hold on the pants around his waist and let them fall to the floor, before he reached up around his mate's neck and pulled the larger man's head down to his own.
"
We don't have to do anything you don't want to do, love. If you don't want to do this, we don't have to
," Blaze's voice spoke in Tal's head.
Tal pulled away and looked into Blaze's eyes. "I want to."
* * * *
Blaze shivered when his mate accepted then allowed the dominant headspace to fill his mind.
He stepped away from Tal and gave him a stern glare. "I want all of your clothes off and you up on that bed on your stomach, with your arms and legs spread, in two minutes." He filled his voice with authority and dominance then smirked when Tal rushed to do his bidding.
Oh, he would so enjoy this. He'd wanted to do something like this since the first time he and Tal had mated and he fully planned on taking advantage of the opportunity. He watched with barely concealed amusement when Tal scrambled to pull off his clothes, tossing them all over the room. Blaze slowly began peeling off his own garments. When he finished he strode slowly over towards the bed, where Tal quivered with excitement. Dropping one hand to the back of his mate's leg, he slowly ran his fingertips up a muscled thigh, over Tal's firm left butt cheek, over the left side of his back and up his arm to his wrist. Tal's breath quicken with his arousal. Blaze inhaled deeply and his eyes slid closed when the smell of his mate's pre-cum filled his nostrils. Tal's cock already leaked and they hadn't even done anything yet.
Taking Tal's left wrist in hand, Blaze fasted one end of the electronic cuffs to the metal fastening he had concealed in the headboard. Tal gasped.
"You never noticed that before did you, baby?" he asked with a grin.
Tal's head shook back and forth and Blaze pulled his hand away and brought it down firmly on his mate's backside. Tal yelped and his body jerked. The handprint on his mate's ass had a fierce growl rumbling up from Blaze's chest when another sign of his claim to his mate appeared. Tal's free hand come back to cover the abused flesh, and Blaze spanked his ass again.
"When I ask you a question, Talon, I want a verbal reply, and you don't move unless I tell you to. Do you understand me, mate?" Blaze pitched his voice low.
"Y-yes, Blaze," Tal responded.
Blaze brought his hand back down upon his mate's ass again.
"Sir! Y-yes sir!" Tal corrected.
Blaze grinned. "Good job, baby." He praised his mate before walking around to the other side of the bed and fastening Tal's other hand.
He stroked the stretched skin of Tal's arms and smoothed his hand down over the planes of his back and over the globes of his tight ass. Scions, he loved the way his mate's skin felt. Drawing his fingers lightly down to his mate's ankles, he pushed and prodded Tal's legs until the younger man rested on his knees, his chest pressed against the bed, his arms spread with his wrists shackled to the headboard and his knees spread wide, the restraints on his ankles stretching to accommodate his new position yet still keep him bound.
Blaze stepped back to look at his handiwork, his eyes continuously drifting up to the sight of his red handprint on his mate's ass and a small shiver of delight coursed through him. He stepped forward until he could reach the globes of Tal's ass with no hardship. He took one firm butt cheek in each hand and spread the globes apart then bent over to blow across the pink star that seemed to wink at him. Delighting in the shudder that wracked Tal's body, Blaze blew once more before sticking out his tongue and dragging it across the tense flesh. Tal's moan fueled his own desire and he leaned forward to lick again.
"Scion, you taste so good, baby," Blaze groaned before he reapplied himself to the task of licking and sucking on Tal's hole.
Tal's sphincter began to relax and Blaze pointed his tongue before easing it inside. Happy to be the Alpha male and thereby able to shift different parts of his body at will, he allowed his tongue to morph into that of his wolf's and began to thrust the muscle in and out of Tal's welcoming orifice, the raspy feel of his tongue obviously driving the other man crazy, if his whimpers, moans, and pleas for 'more, more, more,' were anything to go by.
Blaze pulled his tongue out and brought down a swift slap to Tal's right ass cheek.
"No talking, baby," he admonished before returning to his earlier treat of eating Tal's ass.
"Y-y-yes… s-s-sir," Tal stammered before pressing his chest down as far as it could go into the mattress beneath him, his ass stretching upwards as if searching for something.
"Are you ready for me to fuck you, mate?" Blaze asked, his voice slightly more growly than before, his hands shaking slightly as he tried to restrain himself.
"Yes, sir. Please fuck me, Alpha King," Tal pleaded.
At the sound of his title, Blaze's tenuous control began to slip. He lifted his large and leaking cock, spitting on it generously before leaning forward to repeat the action on Tal's hole. He brought his fingers to his lips and sucked on them, coating them with saliva. Rubbing the pad of one finger around Tal's entrance made the Vermithian relax, and with the realization his man wanted him as much as Blaze wanted Tal, he pushed two fingers into the slightly stretched, very lubed entrance of his mate. Tal hissed, quite possibly from the burn, before he thrust those fingers in and out, Tal's cries and pleas lifting up to the sky.