Rift. (Rewritten in 2010)

Autumn, Year Two (9th Moon)

It was nearing the middle of the autumn season, and Damon and Alex were together in Damon's room. Alex was pacing back and forth in the open sitting area, and Damon was crouched on the floor of the bathroom. The doctor, an old and friendly wolfe, stood by the bathroom door, speaking to Alex.
"What are his symptoms?"
"Uh, nausea, headache, minor abdominal cramps, watery eyes - " There was a retching sound from the bathroom. " - and vomiting."
"I see." The doctor thought it all over and went into the bathroom to stand next to Damon. "I'm going to need to ask you a few questions, son. Do you think you can come and sit on the bed for a while?"
Damon nodded miserably and Alex helped him to the bed. When he was settled, the doctor sat down next to him.
"When did you and Kriston begin your sexual relationship?"
"Uh..." Damon blinked, then recovered. "A little while ago. The seventh moon."
"And your change was completed successfully?"
Damon nodded.
"And have you ever attempted any contraceptive measures?" The doctor looked up for this question, peering hard at his patient, and Damon swallowed.
"No. I would never do that."
The doctor nodded approvingly, then reached into his bag and handed Damon a tube.
"Urine sample, then." Damon made a face and went into the bathroom. After he had disappeared, the doctor turned to Alex, laying a hand on the young man's growing belly.
"And how are you feeling?" he asked, kind demeanor returned. Alex just glowed.
"Fine. Feels better than two months ago."
The doctor nodded, pleased.
"You'll really be showing soon."
"I know. Garron's already planned the birth announcement for Friday."
"Well, I don't expect First Wolfe Garron will be alone in his celebration." the doctor said, looking up to where Damon had reappeared in the doorway, holding the tube between two fingers and grimacing. The doctor took it and pulled from his pocket a small foil packet, which he opened between his teeth. He dropped the contents into the tube, capped it, and then all three watched as it turned green, then a fuschia color.
"What does that mean?" Damon demanded and the doctor smiled.
"It means congratulations are in order."
"No." Damon's eyes got big. "I'm not." the doctor nodded and looked sympathetic.
"You're with. I'd guess a few weeks along, and I'm sure your mate will be very happy to hear. Would you like me to notify him?"
"No, thank you - I'd rather tell him myself." Damon stuttered, still peering at the tube. The doctor nodded and put his bag together as he headed for the door.
"I'd like you in my office tomorrow for a full physical."
Damon furrowed his brow.
"I'll call in, then."
The doctor nodded again and suddenly Damon paled and disappeared into the bathroom.
"And you can give him this," the doctor addressed Alex now, handing over a bag of crushed leaves. "Chew one mouthful a day as long as the nausea persists."
Alex nodded and with that, the doctor was gone. Damon dragged himself out of the bathroom and collapsed over the bed.
"I'm really not happy right now." he groaned, rolling over to lie on his stomach. Alex grinned and ruffled Damon's hair.
"Kriston is going to be ecstatic."
"Yeah.” Damon sighed, “I know."

~~~

The doorknob clicked and two anxious eyes turned towards the sound. Kriston poked his head in, then ran over to the bed to jump on top of Damon, letting the door slam behind him. He landed on his mate with an oomph, and Damon flinched and gently adjusted Kriston's weight. Kriston kissed his mate's nose and smiled.
"Hello." he said cheerily, his tail beating time against the bed. Damon wiggled out of Kriston's grasp, moving to sit up on the bed.
"I have some news for you."
"Is that so?" Kriston raised an eyebrow and looked down at his mate. "Well, spit it out - don't keep me in suspense, pup." Damon glanced away, then back up to his wolfe, holding his gaze.
"I'm with."
Kriston's eyes went wide with surprise, and his gaze danced across his mate's body, searching for perhaps some sort of outward sign that he should have noticed. His face broke into a grin and he pulled Damon back down and rolled them over so that his beta was on top.
"Puppies!" Kriston sprinkled his mate's face with kisses and quick licks. "Oh, this is wonderful. When did this happen? Oh, I love you so much, Day, my angel. Have you seen the Doctor? I want you to be safe and healthy. Oh, I love you. Have you eaten? I think -"
"Kriston, please!" Damon kissed his mate, and smiled, Kriston's giddiness proving contagious. "Too much excitement. Slow down, OK? One question at a time."
Kriston nodded obediently, and his tail wagged as much as it could with its owner lying on it.
"OK. First: how do you feel?"
"I feel like someone put my stomach in a grinder."
"That's normal."
"Ugh."
"Have you seen the Doctor?"
"He came today, and I'm going to the clinic tomorrow. Will you go with me?"
"Of course. How long have you been with?"
"Six weeks; I think I'll show soon."
Kriston smiled a little in a very promising way.
"Good. I've always wanted to see your belly grow full with my litter."
"Ai! Kriston!" Damon blushed bright red and turned his head. Kriston grinned, reveling in his mate's discomfort, and laid a gentle kiss on his neck.
"Our pups are going to be perfect. How many are there?"
"It's too early to tell still, appa." Kriston laughed at the pet name and smiled at Damon.
"You're going to be a fantastic badi, you know."
Damon grinned and Kriston leaned forward, pressing their foreheads together.
"So you're proud of me?"
"Very."
"Happy?" Kriston raked his eyes over his mate, who was now straddling the wolfe's lap.
"Uh huh." Damon leaned over his wolfe, kissed his chest, and then wiggled up to lay with his head next to his wolfe's.
"So will you fuck me?" he whispered. Kriston's eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"Damon -"
"Please?"
"Obviously, but - "
"The Doctor said that it would ease some of my symptoms, so if you don't mind...?"
Kriston grinned and decided that he was going to have to let his mate get with quite a bit more often.

~~~~~

Late Autumn, Year Two (10th Moon)

"C'mon, puppy, wake up. I've got to leave for Council soon."
Damon opened his eyes and his world slowly came into focus. The first thing he saw was Kriston, who perched on the edge of the reclining couch, looking into his face. Damon's gaze moved past him and into the face of the wolfe standing behind him, near the opposite wall of the room. The moment Damon registered his identity, he leapt up and backwards, pressing himself against the arm of the sofa.
"Shit!" Damon's eyes went wide with panic as he recognized the face of his former trainer. His eyes flitted to Kriston, who looked startled, worried, and perplexed all at once, and then flicked back to the indecipherable expression on the other wolfe's face. Reacting only on instinct, Damon dropped into an odd, frightened crouch, as close against the back of the couch as possible, his hands splayed across his stomach. His breathing bordered on hyperventilation, and his fingers tightened spastically around himself.
"Damon!" Kriston was immediately in front of his mate, stroking his face, his hair, trying to connect with him, to calm him. As time passed and the other wolfe did not approach, Damon's shaking slowed and he managed to meet his Alpha's gaze. Kriston was reaching the outer limits of his patience.
"Day, please tell me what's wrong. Day? Day!" Kriston had both hands on either side of his mate's face, trying to comprehend what had terrified him so deeply. The doctor had said that carrying betas sometimes had nightmares. Was it a nightmare? Damon's eyes were still focused on something just over his shoulder, something beyond both of them...Péron shifted, minutely, near the entryway wall, but it was enough to catch Kriston's attention and make Damon whimper. Four and a half weeks in a BRC cell suddenly came flooding back.

............................

"You say 'thank you' when I'm finished with you, do you understand me, Golden?"
"Fuck you."
A sharp left hook threw him against the wall.
"What was that?"
"Yes, sir."
“Yes, WHAT?”
“Yes, Alpha.”
"And what else?" A satisfied tone.
"Thank you, Alpha."
“For what?” A sneer.
Faltering, because this was the part that made every other part so insufferable.
“For letting me please you.”
“And do you think you have pleased me, Golden?”
Hesitation.
“Yes, Alpha.”
“Are you good to me, Golden?”
“Yes, Alpha.”
“Do you love me, Golden?”
Rebellion, anger, that bursts up in fountains and cannot be lidded.
“I hope you die.”
A kick to his ribs exploded pain through his chest, making it impossible to breathe. A piteous, mocking voice.
"And just when we were doing so well."
The tip of Péron's boots and the sound of a door lock.
............................

Damon squeezed his eyes tight against the visions that were suddenly real and happening all over again. Why was he here?? Why had he come, while Damon was sleeping, to find him, and... Damon tried to get himself under control, tried to stop the tears which came anyway, and failed, and felt weakened in the process. When he looked around the room again, he suddenly couldn't locate an exit, and he felt trapped, realized they'd trapped him, he was trapped, he was going back – back, and he'd only just gotten out...he caught sight of his mate, of Kriston and thought perhaps an appeal? Damon seized the wolfe's wrist in a death-grip, begging.
"Please - please don't get rid of me, Alpha. I was bad before, but I won't be anymore, I promise. I'll love my puppies and I'll behave, just please don't send me back, please, Alpha! I'm sorry, Alpha, please!"
Kriston felt stunned, blindsided by all this. He tried to get through to Damon, tried to tell him that no one was going to take him, no one was sending him anywhere, and that he was safe, his puppies were safe, but it was all in vain. Damon was still there, still touching him, but he was miles away from Kriston. Then the other wolfe's voice intruded harshly into their disoriented world.
"Show some dignity, Golden. You're embarrassing your alpha."
Damon whined quietly, but became silent immediately. The fear was still in his eyes, but he had no voice. Péron came a little farther forward.
"Apologize. And take your proper position. Where has your posture gone?" the calmness of the question hid a danger that Damon knew too well. Still silent, he dropped to his knees on the floor by the bed, head lowered, hands behind his back, and blinked up at the wolfe through wide, frightened eyes.
"Sorry, Alpha." he turned his head slightly to Kriston. "I'm sorry that I embarrassed you, alpha." he added, then glanced up at Péron for acknowledgement. Kriston frowned and snatched his mate up by his arm.
"My betas never kneel." he snapped, and pushed Damon back onto the couch. "Especially not my pregnant betas."
Damon didn't look reassured; his eyes wandered back to Péron to correct this situation, tell him what to do.
"Then you spoil them, My Alpha." Péron responded, as respectfully as he could. Kriston growled low in his throat.
"Your distaste for humans has grown into insolence, Péron."
"Your taste for humans allows them to undermine the very structure of our society." Péron answered, smoothly, his posture still deferential. Kriston's eyes lit, and he tilted his head.
"Is that a challenge, Officer?"
Péron turned his face away in the mildest gesture of passivity he could manage.
"No challenge, First Alpha. Only correction."
"You think to correct me?"
Péron attempted to remedy his misstep.
"A suggestion, First Alpha. I only want the best for our Pack. Our society. Our wolfish society."
"Our society is their society, Péron. We are one now, and as rulers, we demand synthesis, not submission." this seemed to strike a sore spot, and Péron glowered at his First, but, unable to speak further, turned his annoyance on Damon.
"Finish your apology." he snapped.
Damon's breath hitched.
"Damon, stop it. Now." Kriston was angry, but Péron was terrifying, and for a minute, Damon wasn't sure who to follow. Beaten-in fear won out.
"I apologize, Alpha, for my behavior. I deserve - "
"Stop it now!" Kriston was on his feet, approaching Péron, but his words were still directed at his mate. "Damon, if you speak another word, you'll be punished."
Damon shut up right away, but sat looking confused as Kriston circled Péron.
“What happened to my mate?” Kriston asked, enunciating every word clearly. Péron watched the Alpha move and didn't speak. Kriston's voice dropped. “I repeat: What happened to my mate, Officer Péron?”
The wolfe seemed to hesitate, then, without looking directly at Kriston, began to recite,
“The human was inducted into class 32 of the Beta Rehabilitation Centre of the ColdRiver Pack in Year P2. All arrangements were made in accordance with the protocol HB9-7-1, sections 15 – 32. Notification was given to the human's residence, which - “
Kriston ended this, abruptly, by putting his fist through the wall beside Péron's head.
“What the hell did you do to him, Péron?” he snarled, his voice losing its humanness and going distinctly animal, “You did this to him, didn't you? You were there, weren't you? It's your BRC. Is this what goes on inside your damned BRC?!"
Péron regarded his Alpha with a mixture of defiance, fear, and confusion.
"You asked that he be made more docile." he answered, coolly.
Kriston was horrified.
"I didn't say make him like this!"
Péron looked over his Alpha's shoulder at the shaking human.
“You said to do whatever it took."
Kriston faltered, recognizing the trademark words of his own temperamental rage.
“I didn't say to ruin him.” he snapped. “I never asked you to ruin my mate.”
Behind him, Damon's breath sped up again and he blinked, hard.
“He isn't ruined, Alpha, he - “
“He is, and you goddamn well know it!” Kriston snapped. “Now you tell me what you did to him so I know just what to throw you in the Lower Levels for.”
Péron's eyes narrowed.
“You want me jailed for your offense. You said to teach him, at any cost, what it meant to be a beta.”
"I said teach, not traumatize." Kriston hissed at Péron. “You knew your bounds."
"I didn't ruin him." Péron insisted. "He is a beta. I taught him that. His position in our society - in our hierarchy is deferential to yours. He is behaving as his position demands. Or have you become too polluted with human ways to remember the way things were?"
"I remember perfectly!" Kriston growled. "But things change. We progress."
"This is not progress!” Péron cried, emotion finally breaking through the stoic facade. “It is destruction. The way they speak to us! The things they demand...the status they take from good, strong wolfes who are demoted to being their caretakers - “
“You demanded the BRC from me, Péron! You wanted your position!”
“Only because I had no choice!” the wolfe rejoined. “These humans - they're tearing us apart. From the inside out. They must be controlled, and if they cannot be controlled, then we will all be destroyed."
Kriston took this in and wished he hadn't, but he fought back regardless.
"If it weren't for our progress, Officer Péron, our human influence, you would be dead where you stand."
Péron shifted his ears back slightly in response to the decidedly unsubtle reminder of his own position.
"My First, I will remind you - "
"Don't try to turn your crime on me, Péron. You have done wrong. You have wronged your Pack, you have wronged your Alpha, and you have wronged your Alpha's mate. Ever since Damon arrived here, you've been determined to break him. I didn't see it it before, but it's clear to me now. You've manipulated me, tricked and deceived your way into getting your hands on him, and I'm sorry I didn't figure it all out sooner.” Kriston shook his head. “The only sense I can't seem to make in it is why. Why do you hate him?"
A moment, just too long, and then, helplessly, Péron confessed:
"I don't."
In those words, Kriston began to understand. There was a moment of silence between them, and then Kriston rediscovered his anger and had Péron by the throat. He stared evenly at his captive.
"You wanted him."
There was a dead silence.
Everything was still, and even Damon held his breath, waiting for an answer. For a moment, Péron had the face of a child, and then it was gone again and his teeth were bared and the words spit out like a bitter poison.
"I have never wanted a human in my life. Let alone one so slutty as that one."
Péron snarled, baring his teeth fully. Without hesitation, Kriston slammed his head into the wall.
"Am I not your Alpha?" he demanded, enraged. He threw Péron to the floor, where the smaller wolfe yelped and Damon heard a distinct cracking sound. Kriston loomed over him. "Am I not your Alpha, Péron!?"
Péron lifted his head, looked one last time at Damon, then turned to Kriston and growled.
“No.”
The last distinguishable shape Damon saw was Kriston's shift; then it was all fur and blood and the terrible ripping sounds that Damon knew meant open skin. When they came out of it, Kriston had the animal Péron's throat in a bite, choking him to the ground. As suddenly as they had shifted first, they went back, and now two-legged Péron was bleeding out over Kriston's hands, which were tight around his throat. Kriston held for long, tense moments until the other wolfe finally collapsed. Slowly, Kriston looked up from where he knelt, crouching over Péron's prone figure, to turn to his mate. Damon whimpered and drew back.
"Get out." Kriston snarled at him. “Get out.”

~~~

An hour later, Kriston found Damon staring blankly at the wall in a spare room on the other side of their living quarters. He gave no indication that he acknowledged Kriston's presence, but the wolfish ears heard his heartbeat pick up. Finally, he moved, lifting his head towards Kriston, but keeping his eyes firmly downcast.
"Alpha?" The words were so soft that even the wolfe had to strain to hear them.
"I'm here."
"I'm sorry I acted like that."
"Don't be."
There was a sniffling quiet that made it apparent that Damon was crying.
“I'm sorry that I'm ruined.”
Kriston felt that like a punch in the gut.
“You're not – I didn't -” he stopped, and exhaled slowly. “No, I'm sorry, Damon. I shouldn't have said that, because you're not ruined. You're just hurt. And you're hurt because of me, because...” Kriston felt a searing pain in his belly that must have been regret. “Because I fucked up. Because I didn't think.”
Damon made a muffled sound, and Kriston wanted to go to him, but held himself back. If he didn't say everything now, it would never be said.
“I'm sorry that I sent you to the BRC, Day. And I don't know exactly what happened to you there, but I know it was awful and I knew that, honestly, before you went. I'm sorry that I hurt you. I'm sorry that I wanted to hurt you. I'm sorry that my temper -” he exhaled again, uncertain of himself, “Got beyond my control. But please, please know that I will never let you be hurt again.”
Damon whimpered, then sniffled, and now Kriston did go to him, laying arms around his shoulders and holding the small back tight to him. Damon made no effort to reciprocate the embrace, but neither did he move away, and so for long moments, they both just rested. Kriston was silent, pondering perhaps this, perhaps something else. Damon, however, took the time to summon his courage and speak.
"I also have to tell you something, alpha." he whispered.
The wolfe's heartbeat picked up thirty paces, but he maintained a calm exterior.
"Tell me anything, love."
Tears were coming from Damon again, and Kriston began to feel deeply, deeply worried.
"You'll punish me, but -"
"I won't."
Damon chewed his lip and took in a long breath.
"Péron - "
"Don't speak his name to me." Damon glanced up at his mate. "Don't ever speak his name to me again."
The human swallowed and looked back down.
"Sorry, Alpha - "
"Use my name."
"Sorry, Kriston." the tears that Damon had thought were past reappeared suddenly, and he used the back of his hand to wipe them away. "When I was at the Behavior Centre, I did...things." Kriston tensed.
"What things?"
Damon moved off the chair and went to stand several feet from his wolfe, closer to the door, putting a safer amount of distance between the two of them.
"I hated what they did to me, Alpha. I hated who they made me be. I couldn't do it anymore, I couldn't take it. Do you understand? I couldn't do it anymore, they - " Damon dragged in a few ragged breaths and Kriston just let him continue. "I hated Pé - that wolfe. The things he made me do to him, I just - “ Damon had to take another minute to recollect himself.
"I just had to get out. So some of the guards, they cut me a deal."
"What kind of deal?" Kriston asked, suspiciously.
Damon was shaking, hard.
“They said they wanted to fuck the Alpha's mate.”
Kriston exploded into violence.
"For FUCK'S sake, Damon!" he swore and jerked away from his mate. Damon made a keening sound and scooted away from the wolfe as quickly as he could.
“I'm sorry, Alpha! I didn't! Alpha, please!” he sobbed, and Kriston felt like an ass again. He crept closer to his mate, trying to control the heaving rage inside of him. Damon, unconsciously, put one hand to his stomach, where it was now roiling from the upset.
“No, Damon, I'm sorry. It's not you I'm mad at, puppy. It's not you."
Damon exhaled sharply, but remained where he was, tense and ready to run. Kriston took one of the human's hands in his own.
“Please tell me the rest.”
Damon hesitated, then went on.
“They couldn't, they knew. Because I was unchanged. But they wanted to do other things, and they...they said they would tell you I'd gotten out early because I learned fast."
Kriston remembered reading the papers.
Strong ability to adapt. Good behaviour. Exhibits extraordinary positive growth in the direction of assimilation, consistent with the goals of the Empire.
Each word felt like a slap in the face. More pieces made sense.
"You didn't slip in the pool."
"Huh?"
"That bruise...you didn't slip into the pool at Recovery."
Damon was silent. If he said too much, it might implicate Alex, a chance he wasn't willing to take.
"Were there others, too?"
Damon didn't answer.
"Were there other bruises, Damon?" Kriston's voice was hard, and Damon was shaken up enough to answer immediately.
"No, Alpha, none."
Kriston growled and slammed a fist into the wall, swearing out some words in a language that Damon didn't understand.
"We have to go to Garron and the Council. These wolfes have committed an act of war, upon ColdRiver and upon my mate. They have broken our trust in their authority, and they have undermined my edicts with their treatment of our betas. They will be put to trial, and they will die for this."
Damon's eyes got wide.
"Alpha, no!" Kriston looked at his mate with a mix of shock and horror.
"You defend them?"
Damon tried to think quick, realizing how his protest sounded to wolfish ears. It sounded like betrayal.
"No! I just...I mean, lock them away, or exile them, or something, but - kill them? Hasn't there been death enough on this planet?"
Kriston seemed to accept this reasoning, and sighing, began to cross the room to approach his mate. Damon watched him warily, fear battling with reason. Closer, Kriston stroked his hair, smoothing it down where it had escaped its halfway cornrowed state.
"I am sorry, love. But we are wolfes, and for us, this is the way things must be."
Damon met his eyes.
"Is there no alternative?"
Kriston held his mate's gaze for a long, meaningful moment before he spoke.
"I am a wolfe, Damon. Not a man."

~~~~~

Autumn, Year Two (10th Moon)

It was late afternoon, and despite the cool air, Damon had gone to sit outside with Alex. Now that Péron's final trial date was set, he and Kriston felt they could relax. Damon had begun to settle into compound life, and he and Alex, who had developed an intense desire to be outdoors in the latter months of his pregnancy (which convinced him that his litter was mostly wolfe), had taken to garden lunches.
"Think he's mad at me?" Damon pondered aloud, looking up from the untouched plate before him.
"No, I think he's worried about you." Alex responded. Damon nodded, but still looked concerned.
"He's been acting funny lately. Like he's avoiding telling me something." Damon furrowed his brow for a moment, considering what to say next, and just then, Kriston came up behind him. He covered Damon's eyes with his right hand, then lifted it to reveal a small bunch of flowers clasped in his left. Damon smiled and Kriston took his hand.
"C'mon, let's go. I want to steal you for a minute." Kriston nodded towards the building, and Damon glanced back at Alex, who waved goodbye, then got up to follow.
"Where're we going?" Damon asked, smiling as he followed his alpha towards the portico that led inside.
"Just for a walk." Kriston held the door for his mate, ushering him in with a widely exaggerated gesture.
"Indoors, Kriston?" Damon asked, laughing, as Kriston led him by the hand to the elevator.
"We just have to stop in for a second." the wolfe reassured, kissing his mate's neck.
"Kriston, where are we going?" Damon giggled as the elevator stopped. Kriston didn't answer, only led him out and down the hallway. Damon grew slightly nervous.
"Kriston?" When the wolfe remained silent, Damon's apprehension magnified, but he followed his wolfe anyway. When they reached the end of the hallway, Damon suddenly realized where he was. Hesitation quickly bloomed into full-fledged hysterics.
"Why are we at the infirmary, Kriston?" Damon backed away from the looming double doors.
"Because, puppy, we need to take care of some things."
"I'm not sick, Kriston, I feel fine."
"I know, puppy, it's not about that."
"There's nothing wrong with me, Kriston, I'm fine, I don't need to go in there." Damon pulled his hand away from Kriston and crossed his arms.
"I know you're fine, pup. We just have to go in for a minute, OK? Just a minute, then we can leave."
"Why do I have to go in?"
"It's just for a minute, puppy."
"I'm not going in!"
"Damon..."
"You can't make me!"
"Damon, that's enough."
"I'm not sick, Kriston!" Kriston sighed and there was a moment of silence. Then, swiftly, he surged forward, closed his arms around Damon, mindful of his now-sensitive belly, and lifted him. Damon kicked viciously, wriggling to get free, but Kriston kept control easily, his strength overpowering his young mate. Inside the infirmary doors, a nurse joined in the scuffle, on Kriston's side, and helped restrain Damon to a bed. Damon tugged at his bonds sadly for a moment, then whimpered and looked pitifully up at Kriston. His eyes were full of a hurt and betrayal that made the wolfe cringe.

~~~~~

Kriston stood behind the glass, watching silently. The doctors had been sifting through Damon's memories for an hour now, and had enough evidence to determine a sentence for his five abusers. Though the procedure was not painful, Damon had had to be sedated, and now lay sleeping. At last, the doctors finished, and Kriston was allowed to take his mate home. Refusing offers of help from his lieges, he lifted Damon's sleeping form himself and carried his mate back to their floor. He laid Damon down on the bed and tucked him in, then climbed in next to him.

When Kriston awoke, he was alone in bed, but Damon's presence was evident. Clothes littered the floor around the closet, and the distinct smell of Damon's cologne lingered on the air. There was a rustling in the bathroom, and Kriston sat up to look. Damon jumped when he came out of the door, seeing Kriston awake and sitting. He reflexively pulled his T-shirt down to cover his stomach, but Kriston leapt forward to stop him.
"Show me." the demand was softened into something like a question. Damon flushed, but did as requested and lifted his shirt just enough to show his stomach. Kriston was mesmerized. He reached out to stroke Damon's belly, not looking at his mate.
"How long has it been?" he asked quietly.
"Four and a half months." Damon said without intonation.
"I've missed a lot of it, haven't I?" Kriston's regret was evident in his words. Damon was quiet.
"I guess so." Kriston frowned, then took Damon's hands in his own and pulled him down to lie on the bed. As they laid there together, Kriston moved, stretching his body over his mate's and nuzzling Damon's neck gently.
"Love you, puppy." he murmured against Damon's skin. Damon shivered with the sensation and turned into his alpha's touch. “And I always will.”

~~~~~