Page 69 of Virtually Guarded

“And I assume where you stay, he stays?” The Anax studied us. “I told you, Ren, you’re one of my wolves now. Xavier’s, but mine in a different way. This is your home as long as you want it to be. Kyle said you’ve been a lot of help with the virtual region thing, or whatever you want to call it. You have a place here. Even before this declaration, but especially now.”

“Thank you, Anax,” I mumbled. “Um, Tobias.”

“Of course,” the Anax said. “You two are mates. Anyone could see it, and I’m honored that you chose to declare it to Kyle and me. If you choose to share a room, just let Luz know so she knows where to clean, and let Seth and Laurits know where to find you, Xavier.”

“I think we’re going to keep separate rooms for now,” Xavier said. We’d talked a little about it that morning before we got up. “Just in case we need a break from each other.”

“Sometimes that happens with mates,” Kyle said blandly. Tobias shot him a glare over his shoulder, and Kyle laughed.

“Whatever works for you.” Tobias stood and shook our hands. “Congratulations. You said you were going to delay declaring and claiming, but it looks like the universe had other plans.”

“Something sure did,” I said. “I’m not sorry about it.”

“Neither am I.” Xavier kissed the top of my head. “I should get back to work. Thank you for taking the time, Anax.”

“Tobias.” Tobias rolled his eyes. “You’re welcome. I have some work to do too, so I’m heading into the office.”

“I’ll follow up with Seth to find out where he wants me.” Xavier gave me a one-armed hug. “See you later, Ren.”

“Yes.” I smiled up at him.

Kyle stood. “I need to get back to work on Virtual Haven and the rest. I’d like to at least have Virtual Haven up and running before next full moon. I know I said I didn’t need you today, Ren, but I might ask you to help me out a little this afternoon.”

“I’ll be here,” I said, and was surprised by how incredibly right those words felt.

That night after supper, Xavier and I went to my room. Xavier’s was larger and had a bigger bed, but my room was where I was comfortable. With the door closed, we curled up together on the bed, my head on his chest. He stroked my hair. “How are you feeling?”

“It’s all still a lot.” I kissed just above his shirt collar. We hadn’t gotten around to undressing yet. “And if you claimed me the way you did, what the hell happens when we finally fuck?”

“You’ve been thinking about that?” He scoffed. “I don’t know. Stronger claiming, maybe. Or maybe it just feels incredible, and we both come, and we add it to our repertoire. Do you want to find out tonight?”

He didn’t change tone at all asking the question, so it took me a second to grasp what he’d said. “You want to?”

“I’m asking if you want to.” He pushed me off and turned onto his side to face me. “Yes, I want to. It isn’t only up to me. Everything we’ve done is amazing, and if that’s what it continues being, I’m good with it.”

“I want you,” I whispered. “Inside me. But do we have…?” I wasn’t sure he even knew what we needed. Hell, I wasn’t sure I knew. If he was going to fuck my ass, we needed lube. Maybe not condoms, because no diseases for werewolves, but condoms did make cleaning up easier. If we went with vaginal, a condom was absolutely needed, but no lube.

Damn. I’d never had this much trouble sorting out logistics when it came to sex. Then again, I’d never been with anyone who gave me as many options as Xavier. It was one of the things I refused to admit I loved about him, because I still wasn’t quite ready to say “love” about anything involving him.

“No.” He rolled his eyes. “Shopping run tomorrow. I was going to make a side trip to the drugstore. So I guess we’ll have to wait another day.”

“It’ll be worth the wait.” Looking down at the baseball logo on his T-shirt, because I couldn’t quite look him in the eye for my next question, I hesitated. “Do you prefer…Like, would you rather be…Shit. What hole do you want to fuck?”

Turning slightly red, he stared for a second, then snorted. “I don’t have a preference.”

“Okay.” That didn’t help. “I don’t want to chance getting pregnant. Like, I need to, I don’t know, have surgery or something? Get rid of the uterus. That would help.”

“I don’t know if it would. Rapid healing, remember?” He grinned. “It might grow back.”

I shuddered. “Don’t even fucking joke about that. Werewolves have never had hysterectomies?"

“Female—sorry. Werewolves with uteri make sure they won’t get pregnant, but I don’t know whether they do it through surgery.” Head tilted, he looked thoughtful. “We could ask.”

“Like, interview every uterus-laden werewolf to find out how they stopped the pregnancy thing?”

He snorted again. “No, I mean ask someone who might know. Suzannah, maybe. She’s a pack healer and someone with a uterus.”

“I’ll talk to her.” Since I’d already started talking with her about all the traumatic shit in my life, I might as well bring this up too. “So meanwhile, I’m sure we can find a few other things to do to each other. While we figure out how to keep me from getting knocked up and wait for you to remember to buy condoms and lube.”