A Series Of Surprisingly Fortunate Events
May. 3rd, 2013 06:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Sergeant Reyes was yelling.
This wasn’t anything new; Jack was pretty sure it was part of the job description. It was meant to establish him as the alpha in the minds of his men, train them to fear him more than the enemy, obey without a second thought. But Jack didn’t need the psychological enforcement to make him want to follow Reyes through hell and back. The man was fucking gorgeous in a brutal way, pacing back and forth with the fluidity of a panther. He was strong, he was dangerous, he looked like he’d straight-up bite you if you got into a fight with him, and Jack really, really wanted to get fucked by him. Hickeys and scratching and throwing Jack down onto one of their thin regulation bunks and just-
“Morrison! You think this is funny?”
Shit. Jack schooled his expression into something less…appreciative…and barked out, “Sir! No, sir!”
The other men pretended as hard as they could that they saw nothing, heard nothing as Sergeant Reyes prowled up to Jack, got right in his face, close enough that the man could smell the musky spice of his cologne. It was a real struggle for Jack to keep his face composed, to not stare into those fierce brown eyes, to not lean forward and kiss his superior officer.
“I’m not sure I believe you,” Reyes growled, his voice low, almost intimate.
Jack swallowed back a small moan at the thought of that voice telling him how hard he was gonna get fucked.
“Drop and give me fifty,” Reyes ordered as he walked away, and Jack couldn’t even be disappointed because doing push-ups would take his mind off how goddamned attractive the man was.
===
Two years later
===
Waking up was harder than it should have been. Jack struggled to remember what he’d done the night before.
No alcohol; this wasn’t a hangover.
No sex, either. Sadly.
There’d been some rowdiness at it being three years for him and a couple other guys, but-
Wait. After they’d gone to bed…
Someone had prowled through doing a lights-out inspection, but the footsteps had been wrong for it being Reyes. They’d stopped by his bunk-
He’d been drugged.
Jack cursed softly under his breath, the lingering effects making his tongue slow and clumsy, and struggled to peel at least one eye open.
The room was dark, which didn’t help, but it was small. Two beds, two desks, two dressers, two doors. The other bed was occupied, but he couldn’t make out more than that.
“You tell ‘em,” slurred his new bunkmate.
Wait. “Reyes?”
The lump on the other bed stirred. “Morrison?”
“What happened? Sir,” Jack added hastily.
“Fuck if I know,” the other man growled. “Sleep if you can. Pretend you are if you can’t. We’re not dead and we’re not tied up, so whoever abducted us will tell us what’s going on eventually.”
In the dark, Jack smiled. “Yes, sir.”
Reyes sighed in irritation. “Don’t. Clearly my rank got me nowhere, so drop it. We’re equals until something happens to prove otherwise, got it?”
At the last second, Jack closed his mouth on the instinctive Yes, sir. “Got it,” he repeated instead.
“Good,” Reyes said, his voice sounding warmer than Jack had ever heard it. “Night, Morrison.”
“Night, Reyes.”
=
Somewhat surprisingly, Jack actually slept. He knew he had because suddenly the light was on and he and Reyes both were cursing at it.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” a smug fucking voice announced over some kind of broadcast system. “You are all to be commended. As of last night, you have been accepted into the very prestigious Soldier Enhancement Program. This top-secret program aims to turn you into super-soldiers through the miracles of science, whether you like it or not, because if you hadn’t noticed, we’re at war with a bunch of killer robots that want to wipe out humanity. We took the hundred best and brightest of the United States military, so try not to die. There will be time for that later. Breakfast is at oh-six-hundred; the time is now oh-five-hundred. Your doors will unlock in forty-five minutes and you will be guided to the mess hall. You signed up to serve your country, and as a thank you in advance for your sacrifice, we’re relaxing all grooming and fraternization rules. Your rooms and roommates have not been assigned and will not be enforced.”
“Fuck,” Reyes said quietly, sitting up to glare at the speaker just over what had to be the locked outside door. He wasn’t wearing anything past regulation briefs, and Jack tried to hide how much he was staring at that delicious, scar-speckled skin. “Dibs on the first shower,” he said as he climbed out of bed and stretched.
Jack was very glad he was laying on his stomach, because he’d been stripped to his underwear as well and watching the play of Reyes’s muscles after two years and change of speculation was…very appealing. Reyes walked past and Jack drank in the sight of those strong, thick thighs and the accompanying ass. Once the bathroom door was closed and he could hear the water running, he scrambled for ‘his’ dresser. Nondescript regulation uniforms, underwear, socks. Plenty of socks. Jack grabbed one and sat on the foot of his bed. He spared half a second to feel guilty as he whipped out his rock-hard cock and slipped the sock over it, and then it was nothing but thoughts of Reyes and those thighs and sweet relief.
He was able to hide the sock and get back into position with plenty of time to be pretending to sleep when Reyes walked out of the bathroom buck naked, holy shit, he wanted to lick that wet skin, he wanted to feel those balls slap against his ass as Reyes fucked him, oh my god he was so thankful that he’d rubbed one out because he was almost at risk for getting a boner again.
A hand slapping his ass made him jump.
“Get in there and shower, Morrison.”
“Yes!” Jack darted for the bathroom, just barely remembering to not add the sir.
There was, thankfully, a second towel for him. He washed and scrubbed himself dry and used the electric shaver before emerging with the damp towel around his waist to see that Reyes had already dressed. He was also, judging by the patches of stubble, planning to grow a moustache and goatee. Jack dressed quickly, keeping his back turned, and returned the towel to the bathroom.
“Shy?” Reyes asked with a smirk as Jack came out of the bathroom. He was lounging on his bed, arms crossed behind his head, and Jack could all too easily imagine the splendors hidden in his regulation pants. “I would have thought three years in the military would have ground your inhibitions out.”
“It’s different when there’s nineteen other guys,” Jack protested. Shit. He was blushing, he could feel it.
Reyes stood in a fluid motion and prowled around him. “Morrison,” he growled, low and intimate, “are you attracted to me?”
Jack swallowed. “What difference would it make if I were?”
The other man stopped just in front of him, arms crossed, frowning. “The difference is that if you’re not, I’m going to be sizing up the other ninety-eight guys in the mess hall and seeing who might want to…switch roommates.”
Before Jack had even finished processing the implied threat and the possible consequences of his actions, he leaned forward and kissed Reyes, hands on the other man’s shoulders. He was in no way expecting those crossed arms to hold his head still while Reyes kissed back, but he wasn’t about to object. It was fierce and powerful, every bit as dominantly delicious as Jack had dreamed it would be, and also over too quickly.
“We’ll discuss this more after breakfast,” Reyes purred, eyelids lowered like a smugly contented cat.
Jack struggled to drag his brain back out of the other man’s pants. “Yes, sir,” he breathed.
Reyes laughed.
=
When the door unlocked, they cautiously pushed it open to find their room was one of ten in a short hallway that intersected a wider one, with a man in a labcoat standing at the intersection gesturing and calling out reminders to check their door and remember their number. Jack glanced at the door – 36 – and followed Reyes to merge with the rest of the crowd that followed the labcoat like a flock of geese. The mess hall had two serving stations, one on each side, and five long tables in the middle that seated twenty men each. Looked like everyone was going to have to get chatty.
“Morrison,” Reyes said in an undertone as the flock flowed into the room and began to disperse. “Grab those two seats nearest us and hold them.”
Obediently, Jack peeled off with an absent Yessir. He fended off irritated looks – apparently, the corners were prime real estate – with a confident look of I wouldn’t if I were you, and was rewarded when Reyes set two loaded trays down before taking his seat.
They had twenty minutes to eat before the same insolent voice came back on to tell them what they were in for. It sounded basically like boot camp with injections, only weekends were completely free with the caveat that Friday was injection day. So they’d likely be spending their weekends sick in bed or recovering.
The fact that the injections were experimental made Jack very nervous. Reyes didn’t seem very pleased about it, either.
Just outside the mess hall was a map of the compound and a second, larger map of their quarters. Each room was numbered, with two numbered pegs stuck into each one, and a sign to the side requested that room changes be indicated by moving the correct peg to the correct room. The peg with 76 on the end had Morrison, J printed on the side. 77 was Reyes, G.
Lunch would be served at noon. They were free to do as they pleased until then.
With a jerk of his head, Reyes summoned Jack to follow him back to their room. Neither of them said anything until the door was shut behind them.
“What’s the G stand for?” Jack asked. When Reyes gave him a hard look, he grinned and said, “I’d like to know what name to moan.”
Reyes threw his head back and laughed. “A bit presumptuous, aren’t you?”
The sound of Reyes laughing went straight to Jack’s head like a double shot of whiskey. “With the way you kissed me? Seemed like the only reason you stopped was to fuel up first.”
“Hmph.” Reyes crossed his arms, attempting to look stern but only managing amused. “You were never this cheeky when I was your SO.”
Jack grinned at him. “You only say that because you don’t know what I was thinking all those times you had me do push-ups for my expression.”
“And what were you thinking, Morrison?”
“Well, my expression usually slipped around the time I imagined you throwing me across one of the shitty thin bunks we had…”
The amused expression didn’t budge, but Reyes arched his eyebrows. “Really. Like it rough, do you?”
“I’ve never met a man as…primal as you,” Jack said, all the teasing, flirting cockiness gone leaving his throat dry. “The thought of you on top of me, holding me down, dominating me…” he shuddered.
Reyes looked at him like he was some sort of unusual puzzle. “Really. You don’t want a piece of this? You don’t want to tap this ass?”
Jack felt his face heat up and guessed he looked remarkably like a tomato in a wig. “It’s a very nice ass,” he protested, “but no. I’d much rather you tapped mine.” The incredulous silence stretched, and he swallowed. “Please.”
Still silent, Reyes circled Jack as if he were looking for dress code violations and stopped right behind him. “Does this turn you on?” he asked in that low, intimate growl, making the hairs on the back of Jack’s neck stand up.
“God yes.”
Teeth closed gently on the exposed skin of his neck and he whimpered. Arms slid around his torso, slipping under his shirt, the warmth of skin on skin making him gasp.
“How dare you be so wholesome and attractive,” Reyes growled. Jack shivered at his breath on Jack’s ear. “I’ve wanted to nail you for over two years. You know how many uncomfortable boners I’ve suffered because of you? Because of your damned smile?”
“Sorry?” Jack whispered, finding words very difficult to manage with his tight his pants had grown.
“Oh, no. Don’t apologize. You’re mine now and I’m going to make sure we both get what we want. There’s condoms and lube in the bathroom. I’ll get them, you get naked.”
Jack’s heart leaped into his throat. “Yes, sir!”
The arms retreated, the warm breath vanished, and Jack frantically pulled his clothes off and tossed them by his dresser, too worked up to be embarrassed about standing in the middle of the room with his cock out. Reyes came out of the bathroom just as naked, just as aroused, and all Jack could think was that’s going in my ass with hysterical glee clawing at his throat.
“Put this on,” Reyes ordered, handing him a condom.
While he fumbled the thing out of its package and rolled it down his thick shaft, Reyes did something with the blankets and then barked out, “Kneel!”
He’d made a pad on the floor, Jack saw, and his cock twitched as he knelt obediently and braced himself against the side of the bed. Reyes did something – presumably wrapping his own dick and lubing up – and then cool, slick warmth probed at his asshole. Jack bit his lip as one, then two fingers wiggled inside him before retreating. One hand hot on his shoulder, the other lined Reyes up and then reached around to cup his balls as Reyes began sliding slowly in. The little pleasured sounds he made echoed the ones Jack was making, and by the time he was completely inside they were both panting.
Lips against his shoulder, breath against his ear. “It’s Gabriel,” he murmured.
Then the hand around Jack’s balls shifted to a firm grip on his dick, and Reyes – Gabriel! – started fucking him, and all coherent thought ceased.
This wasn’t Jack’s first rodeo. He’d fooled around a few times before, but this was different. This felt right in a way he couldn’t explain. Gabriel moved inside him like the grace of God Almighty, while at the same time covering him like something straight out of Animal Planet, grunting and groaning and biting at the back of Jack’s neck in a show of feral dominance that had Jack whimpering, head laid submissively on the bed as he bucked backwards, shoving Gabriel deeper, each electric impact also a tug on his cock. He could feel his orgasm building, faster than he wanted but he couldn’t help it. For so long, he’d lusted after Reyes – after Gabriel – and now this was everything he’d dreamed of.
Gabriel. Archangel, agent of the divine. How fitting.
“Gabriel,” he moaned as lightning crawled up his spine, igniting his brain. “Gabriel, I’m gonna come. Gabe-”
The world exploded in silence, pleasure erasing everything but the knowledge that his angel was gasping his name, and everything was perfect.
When that endless moment of perfection passed, Jack realized that Gabriel’s cheek was pressed against his shoulderblade, and he was humming deep in his throat with his arms loosely draped around Jack’s chest. It was…remarkably comforting. Jack closed his eyes and let himself drift on afterglow until Gabriel stirred and straightened up.
“Shit. I bit the fuck out of your neck. Sorry about that, Jack.”
Jack. Hearing it made his belly quiver.
“It’s okay,” he said, straightening as well. He turned to look at Gabriel, and also to have pity on his knees and sit. “I liked it. You didn’t break the skin?”
The worry cleared from Gabriel’s eyes and he sat next to Jack, one arm around his shoulders. “Nah. You really do like it rough, don’t you?”
Jack blushed.
Gabriel let out a low, wicked chuckle and leaned over to lip at Jack’s ear. “I’d ask if it was good for you,” he murmured, “but I can see that it was.”
Both of them were still wearing filled condoms on their deflating dicks.
“We should probably get rid of those and clean up.” The way Gabriel said it made it sound like an invitation to something illicit.
“I don’t want to move,” Jack sighed, “but I don’t want to spill on the blanket, either.”
“Good man.”
Jack smiled slyly. “Was it as good as you imagined? Because you sure were.”
Slowly, Gabriel smiled back. “Oh, you better not even think of switching rooms,” he teased. “I marked you. You’re mine.”
The bruises forming on his neck pulsed, promising things Jack didn’t want to put into words. He leaned over to lip at Gabriel’s ear and murmured, “Good.”
===
Although they didn’t really discuss it, they reserved the intimacy of their newfound relationship for when they were alone. During meals, or drills, or any other time they were around other people they were Morrison and Reyes, equals. Once the door to their room shut, however, it was Jack telling Gabriel yes, sir. Having Jack express submission, it turned out, was one of Gabriel’s turn-ons – which was why he initially told Jack to stop, but then didn’t object once he realized the interest was mutual. Neither of them brought up the question of what their relationship was, exactly. They kissed, they fucked, they sprawled half over each other while reading or talking about the day and speculating about the program. Feelings were never mentioned.
They quickly got a reputation among the other men because right from the first exercise, they were neck and neck at the top of the charts. It didn’t matter what task they were put to, one of them always secured the top ranking while the other came in a close second.
Friday was injection day.
One resident of each room was to be injected two hours before lunch; the other two hours before dinner. In room 36, Gabriel was the one getting injected first. Jack followed him to the medical wing and waited, leaning against the wall, for him to emerge again. It was a good thing he did, he decided as he watched other subjects stagger out, dizzy and disoriented. Some clutched their stomachs or hurried in the direction of the nearest bathroom, others covered their eyes and ears as best they could. When Gabriel emerged, he was fortunately at the ‘dizzy and disoriented’ end of the spectrum and Jack ducked under his arm to help him balance.
By the time they got back to their room, Gabriel was holding his stomach.
“Bed or bathroom?” Jack asked quietly.
Gabriel grunted. “Bed. I’m not gonna hurl if I can help it.”
Jack got Gabriel situated on his bed, then grabbed the trash can out of the bathroom and put it in a convenient spot. “I’m going to see if I can find a bucket before everyone else gets the same idea. Need anything else before I do?”
“No.” A pause, and then in a softer voice he added, “Thanks.”
Carefully, Jack leaned over to lay a kiss on Gabriel’s temple.
Buckets were easy enough to find, and Jack grabbed two just in case. Gabriel was looking decidedly worse when he got back, grimacing and sweating, and Jack wasted no time replacing the small trash can with a big plastic bucket. As if he’d been holding it back until Jack was there, Gabriel immediately rolled over and emptied his stomach into it. Jack brought him a cup of water and a wad of toilet tissue when it was over, and waited until Gabriel had used both before swapping buckets and retreating to the bathroom to empty and clean out the first one.
“Feel any better?” he asked when he emerged again.
“Only in that I’ve got nothing left to puke up,” Gabriel rasped. “Too hot, too cold, everything hurts except my eyes.”
A hand against his forehead proved that he had a fever. Jack wet a washcloth and wiped his roommate down, then helped him strip and covered him with a sheet.
“Lunch is in a few,” Jack said gently. “Want me to get you anything?”
“Just the sweet release of death,” Gabriel deadpanned back.
Jack kissed his temple again. “I’ll see what they have.”
It was a tense, anxious meal. The tables were half vacant, and the usual low roar of conversation had been replaced by hushed murmurs as men compared what was going on with their roommates. Unspoken was the grim understanding that it would be their turn soon enough. Jack ate heartily in the expectation that he wouldn’t be eating again until breakfast, and wasn’t surprised when the servers let him take food to go. Chicken noodle soup in a disposable tub, two bottles of water, a lidded cup of juice, plain toasted bread, and an orange all got crammed onto a tray to back with him.
Gabriel was sleeping when Jack returned, and with nothing on his schedule until his own injection, Jack decided that sounded like a good idea. He left the tray on Gabriel’s desk and curled up in bed.
=
Some hours later, a hand on his shoulder woke him up and he groggily opened his eyes to see Gabriel, dressed and looking much better, drinking the last of the juice. “Almost time,” he said grimly.
Jack nodded and sat up. “Lunch was quiet. Didn’t look like anyone from the morning injections was there. I’m not expecting to make it to dinner.”
“I’ll bring you some, like you did for me.” Gabriel pulled Jack to his feet and hugged him tightly. “It sucks, I won’t lie, but it doesn’t last. You’ll be fine. I’ll be waiting to help you back.”
One hand on the back of Jack’s neck was all it took to make him nearly melt into Gabriel’s arms. “Thank you,” he whispered.
Gabriel kissed his forehead.
=
Jack may not have had a fear of needles, but seeing the sheer amount of fluid that was going to be pumped into his veins and feeling the remarkably sturdy straps holding him down almost made him reconsider his decision to leave Indiana and join the military. He kept his eyes shut through as much of the procedure as possible and tried to ignore the burning that was spreading through his body. Finally, one of the labcoats released the restraints and told him he was free.
Everything was blurry, a migraine was building behind his eyes, and the floor felt like it was dancing. Jack leaned against the wall as he made his way out, grateful beyond words when Gabriel’s arm slid around his torso. He closed his eyes and let the other man guide him through the halls and down onto his bed.
“Bucket’s right there if you need it,” Gabriel murmured. “Want to strip now, or wait until the fever sets in?”
“Now,” Jack whispered. “Thank you.”
It was a very uncomfortable wait, feeling the burning sensation permeate every part of his body, leaving shuddering cold in its wake. Gabriel sat on the bed, rubbing his back soothingly and gently stroking his hair. For a while, it seemed like he might escape with his lunch undisturbed, but then the fire filled his belly and left it feeling full of ice, and he leaned over the side of the bed to vomit into the bucket. Gabriel kept rubbing his back soothingly, then got him a cup of water and a wad of toilet tissue so he could clean himself up and rinse his mouth. The fever set in with a vengeance after that, as if emptying his stomach had made room for it, and the world dissolved into burning and freezing simultaneously.
Eventually, he slept.
Jack woke up knowing that the fever had broken, feeling both wrung out and starving. The instant he stirred, Gabriel was there to shove rolled-up blankets behind him and help him to a reclining position. The cup that was pressed to his lips had juice in it, sweet and cold, and Jack greedily sucked down a few mouthfuls before it was pulled away and replaced by a piece of cold toast. Bit by bit, Gabriel fed Jack the same things Jack had brought for him, and by the end of the meal they were cuddled comfortingly together on the same bed.
“Dinner was a ghost town,” Gabriel said somberly. “I think maybe a dozen of us. One of them skipped breakfast before his injections and he said the dry-heaving wasn’t worth it.”
“That’s good to know,” Jack murmured, his head on Gabriel’s shoulder.
“Yeah. I still feel like roadkill, but it’s just muscle ache. Did the nap do you any good?”
Jack grimaced. “Not really. I feel like the only reason I’m not going to sleep through the entire weekend is my stomach eating me from the inside out.”
“Looking forward to breakfast already?”
“Yup.”
“Me too.” Gabriel hugged Jack and sighed. “I’m too tired and sore to even jerk it, how sad is that?”
“I’m not even sure I could get it up right now, to be honest.”
“Yeah.”
Silence stretched for what felt like a handful of minutes.
“Jack?”
“Mm?”
“All our pillows and blankets are in your bed and I don’t want to get up. I’m gonna sleep with you. That okay?”
Jack grabbed a pillow and flopped sideways with it. “Sure.”
A bit of tugging and shuffling followed, and when they settled, Jack was on his stomach with Gabriel using his shoulder as a pillow, both blankets layered on top of them. It was warm, it was cozy, and Jack hummed deep in his throat as they drifted off.
===
Breakfast, Jack informed Gabriel, was slightly more populated than lunch had been and the two of them were hands-down the healthiest. Piles of ham and bacon, stacks of pancakes, and glasses of both milk and juice were devoured at their corner of the mess hall while it seemed like half of the other men were picking at bowls of oatmeal or fruit.
When they were done eating, they made their slow way out to the handful of trees by the track and sprawled in the shade to nap. The rest of the day was spent lazing around between meals, letting their bodies recover, and by Monday they had only the faintest twinges to show for their suffering. To judge by the groaning and wincing most the other subjects displayed, they were by far the fittest and many dark looks were aimed at them.
The next few months followed the same pattern, with the injections taking an increasing toll on the subjects each week. Jack did his best to make Gabriel comfortable in the afternoons, and Gabriel in return fussed over Jack in the evenings. But as the reactions got worse, they started hoarding food because Gabriel could barely stand by dinnertime, forget walk Jack back from his injections. After the 15th injection, the deaths began. Some men started talking about escape; some attempts were made. The smug voice informed the survivors over breakfast that the would-be escapees had been shot, and there was no more talk of escape after that. For the next five weeks, the deaths became more and more frequent, the pegs on the room board thinning out until nearly half the original one hundred were gone.
Then, surprisingly, the deaths stopped.
The after-effects of the injections lessened, slightly at first and then dramatically, until Friday afternoons and evenings saw the subjects racing around the track or lifting weights, jumping rope, even sparring against one another because the injections filled them with energy. They bulked up, losing any traces of fat they may have had, and saw significant increases in strength, reflexes, and endurance. Still, Jack and Gabriel maintained their places at the top of the charts.
Nine months since they’d woken up to discover the government had abducted them, the program ended.
Gabriel, it turned out, had been ransacking the compound’s library for materials relating to command and tactics, and it was no surprise when he was named commander of their much-reduced unit with Jack as his second. They were armed with the latest tech, armored with the newest materials, and set loose on the omnics.
===
Sometime during the Omnic Crisis
===
The explosives went off as planned, turning a row of townhouses into a barricade it would take the omnics a while to climb over. Unfortunately, one of them had almost made it through, and it managed to squeeze off a burst before it was crushed. Jack felt the searing pain like a series of punches to the gut and only managed to gasp before his legs buckled.
“Jack!”
He could see in Gabriel’s horrified face how bad it was. He wasn’t going to make it, not without…
Arms under his knees, around his shoulders. Gabriel lifted him, bridal-style, and Jack closed his eyes as the motion made the world fade to black and red around the edges.
“Stay with me, Morrison,” he snapped as he ran. “Don’t you fucking dare die on me!”
Jack wanted to say something, but he was pretty sure he was going into shock. Breathing took all his concentration. The sound of Gabriel’s footsteps changed to an echo; they were in some kind of enclosed area. The garage at the end of the cul-de-sac? Gabriel laid him on what felt like concrete. The footsteps darted away, and then there was the sound of a garage door closing over Jack’s pained breaths and the agony that pulsed with his heartbeat.
“Jack.” Gabriel’s fingers on his face, lips on his forehead. “Stay with me. You’re going to make it, I promise.” The fingers trembled. “But you have to promise me something.”
It was a battle to open his eyes, but a little bit of relief crept into Gabriel’s worried expression when he did.
“Promise you’ll keep your eyes shut until I say it’s okay to look, and promise you won’t ask questions. Just trust me, okay? Promise me, Jack. Please.”
“I promise. I trust you,” Jack breathed, letting his eyes slide shut again and hoping those wouldn’t be his last words.
The hands vanished with one last caress, only to tear at his armor and expose the wounds. Jack screamed, and for several seconds all he could hear was his own voice bleeding pain. Then something thin and hard held one leg down and something sharp pressed against his chest in four places and something…something was fishing around in his wounds and he cried, actual tears, like he was a child, just sobbed his heart out in pain worse than anything SEP had put him through.
Then he realized that the hard things had vanished and something was tugging on his hair in an achingly reassuring way, a warm weight was pressing gently down on his chest, pinning his arms, and somewhere in the delirium of pain he could almost swear he heard his mother saying It’s okay, Jack, you’re going to be fine.
Familiar exhaustion crept over him, the deep weariness he knew meant his body was going into overdrive to heal, and he’d wake up with a gnawing hunger. But he would wake up, he was confident of that now, and he smiled as the pain started to recede.
“Thanks, Gabe,” he murmured.
The warm weight lifted off of him and, moments later, lips pressed against his temple. “I told you, Jack. I marked you. You’re mine. I’m not letting you go.”
“Good. M’gonna sleep now.”
Gabriel chuckled softly. “Okay. I was going to say you can look now, but if you’re going to sleep then you can look whenever you wake up.”
Jack just smiled and let the world fade out.
===
He woke up in the command tent – not really a tent, but when technology had produced lightweight collapsible buildings, the term had stuck – of the mobile strike base with a pouch of artificially strawberry-flavored nutrient paste tucked into the crook of one arm. Specifically, he was on the cot in the back room behind the strategy room. He could hear Ana’s hard voice, Reinhardt’s ever-enthusiastic indoor boom, Torbjörn grumbling, and Gabriel’s confident tone. His first instinct was to get up and join them, find out what he’d missed while he was unconscious. The cold draft that slipped under the blanket when he lifted it changed his mind real fast. Maybe he’d just stay there and suck down nutrient paste.
Gabriel had stripped him down to his briefs.
Well, he couldn’t argue with the logic. Not with where the omnic had shot him. The wounds needed to be exposed to air to heal right, and that meant shirts and pants were both out. Jack also suspected that Gabriel had done it to keep him from going anywhere until they’d had whatever talk they were going to have after Gabriel had…
…had…
Blindly, Jack felt the skin of his abdomen. Lingering tenderness, but he was completely healed. Combine that with the hard, pointy things that had held him down, the tugging at his hair…
Gabriel was a gryphon.
Holy shit.
Fuck.
No wonder he’d made Jack promise to not ask questions. He had no way of knowing that Jack was familiar with transhumans, because it’s not like either of them had really talked about anything they’d done before entering the military. And for the same reason, it turned out. How had he not suspected anything with how evenly matched they were, and how they both recovered from the SEP injections faster than the other subjects? God, he felt so stupid. He could kick himself for not noticing. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
But this begged the question of what was going to happen, because now Jack knew Gabriel’s secret. Even with his promise…would that be enough? Or would this drive a wedge between them?
How would Gabriel react when he found out Jack’s secret?
He had sucked the pouch empty but was still gnawing on the issue when the meeting broke up. Once the others had left, Gabriel slipped in to sit on a stool by the cot, worry etched into his forehead.
“Jack?” he practically whispered, voice tight with fear. “How are you doing?”
“Physically or emotionally?” Jack asked dryly. “I’m healed, but…”
Gabriel laid one finger on his lips. “Jack. Please, please don’t. Don’t ask. Forget it happened. Didn’t you say you trusted me?”
Jack frowned, and with visible reluctance Gabriel removed his finger.
“I won’t ask,” he said slowly. “I’m just worried that this is going to affect…us.”
“I’m still the same person I’ve always been, Jack. Nothing’s changed except that now…” Gabriel swallowed, more worried and vulnerable than Jack had ever seen him. “Now…you know the lengths I’ll go through to make sure you don’t die on me.”
He wanted so badly to confess, but Gabriel…things would change if he knew. Jack was positive. He didn’t want to lose the comfort of having such a fierce man – fierce gryphon – taking the lead and protecting him.
He was a god-damned coward, that’s what he was.
“Nothing’s changed,” he said slowly. “You’re the same person you’ve always been. I’m the same person I’ve always been,” he added. “I still trust you.”
Hope and relief chased away the worry on Gabriel’s face. “That’s right, Jack. Nothing’s changed.”
Jack reached up with one hand, gently cupping the back of Gabriel’s neck, urging him down for a kiss that started slow and sweet, a reaffirmation of what they meant to each other even though they’d never discussed it. Within moments, however, it turned hot and desperate, Gabriel climbing awkwardly onto the cot to cover Jack with his body as much as was physically possible. Jack’s cock woke up at this show of possessive dominance, and that woke Gabriel’s, and a minute later he was scrambling for condoms and lube while Jack kicked off the blanket and his briefs and rolled over to present his ass once his meat had been wrapped.
Feeling the warmth of Gabriel’s hands on his hips, his back, his shoulders, went straight to Jack’s loins now that he knew why the man preferred taking him from behind. Slowly, tenderly, Gabriel eased himself inside while gently stroking Jack’s cock, humming in deep pleasure at the way the other man begged for more with every Gabe! that slipped out of his mouth. When Gabriel’s teeth closed gently on the back of Jack’s neck, he shuddered and nearly came in the gryphon’s hand.
“Oh, yes Gabe!”
With a ragged moan, Gabriel started thrusting. Neither of them lasted long, Jack turned on immensely now that he knew Gabriel’s secret, and Gabriel spurred on in turn by the sounds Jack was making. A handful of minutes later they sank, groaning, to the mattress of the cot. Gabriel nuzzled Jack’s shoulderblade and laid light, apologetic kisses on the bruises forming just under Jack’s hairline.
“I told you,” Jack murmured, “I like having you bite the shit out of my neck. You’re marking me.”
Gabriel hesitated a moment before kissing the bitemarks again. “Yeah. I am. I’m sorry, Jack. Not for biting,” he added before the other man could protest. “For not telling you…”
“If I can’t ask, you can’t tell,” Jack said firmly. “Nothing changed. Nothing happened. Neither of us talks about it.”
Awkwardly, Gabriel hugged him. “Thank you,” he whispered.
Guilt squirmed in Jack’s belly, choking him, but he took Gabriel’s hand blindly and squeezed.
===
Before Overwatch
===
The end of the Omnic Crisis left a gaping void in everyone’s lives, often in more ways than one. Shifting from a war for survival to picking up the pieces wasn’t easy even for people who hadn’t lost anyone to the war. But for Jack, it was very nearly the end of the world.
Of the fifty-six men to survive the Soldier Enhancement Project, only he and Gabriel had made it out of the war alive. And without Gabriel’s restorative gryphon saliva, Jack wouldn’t have made it, either. But now…now they were simultaneously global heroes and loose ends, experts in war that no longer needed soldiers. And it wasn’t just them; the rest of the international strike force was in the same boat. They were too popular to make disappear, but collectively unsuited for peace, and the UN was keeping them bottled up in the same suite of diplomatic quarters they’d stayed in when the strike force was initially being assembled.
There was a kitchen, at least, and the servants were good about keeping it stocked. Jack took some of his nervous energy out with Gabriel, either sparring or fucking, but when Gabriel was called away to talk politics with the UN, Jack cooked. It never failed to get Gabriel wrapped around him from behind almost the instant he walked into the suite, head on Jack’s shoulder, tension draining out of him.
Well…not until today.
The door slammed shut, and angry footsteps approached, but they went right past the kitchen and into their bedroom. Neither of them had taken their relationship public, it was still Morrison and Reyes, but over the course of the war “public” had stopped including the core members of the strike force, and they’d never bothered with separate quarters even if they still had separate beds.
Quickly, Jack finished assembling the lasagna and slid it into the oven, making sure to set the timer so that someone would take it out even if it wasn’t him. Then he followed his lover’s path into the bedroom and closed the door behind him.
Gabriel was pacing back and forth, like the panther Jack used to imagine him as and wondered if his feline half resembled.
“They want me to lead a fucking peacekeeping organization,” Gabriel snarled. “That’s their big plan for us. Make us into the fucking Jedi Order, global policemen with no real authority. They want to tie me up in so much red tape that I can’t even fucking piss without UN permission.”
A peacekeeping organization. Despite himself, Jack felt a stirring of…excitement. Naturally, with the world struggling to put itself back together, there would be rogue elements eager to take advantage of innocent people. And the idea of leading a force that swoops in to spank the rogues did not sound unappealing to him.
Fuck, was this what growing up was like?
“..worst part is,” Gabriel was saying, “that I know something like that’s going to be needed, but not the way they want. You can’t just march in and go hey, bandits, please come out so we can arrest you. You need a team that can sneak in and get shit done without the red tape. I could do that. I won’t be their fucking poster boy.”
“I could,” Jack said before he realized the words had left his mouth.
Gabriel stopped to look at him, angry predator, wary, and Jack could almost see his ear-tufts raised in a threat display. “You what?”
“I could be the poster boy,” Jack said, his throat suddenly dry as he realized it was true. Fuck, he’d been born for something like this. “I trusted you, remember. Trust me.”
For a long moment, Gabriel looked at him the way he imagined he’d looked at Gabriel. Then, slowly, he nodded. “I trust you, Jack.”
Jack swallowed as it sank in that he was really going to do this. “Alright. There’s lasagna in the oven. I’m going to talk to the council.” He swallowed again. “Gabriel? I love you.”
It was the first time either of them had said the word, although Jack was sure he’d heard te amo in the heat of passion at least once, and Gabriel looked like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to curl up and cry or kiss Jack until neither of them could breathe.
“I love you too, Jack,” he whispered.
Now Jack wasn’t sure if he wanted to cry or kiss, but he had a third option. He turned and left the room, striding through the common area without looking at anyone, and didn’t stop until the door to the suite had shut behind him.
=
That went really well, Jack thought as he walked back to the suite. Maybe it had been a little unfair, unleashing the natural prowess he’d kept under wraps since he’d left Indiana, but it was for the good of the world. And, more importantly, it was for Gabriel.
Gabriel.
At the door to the suite, Jack hesitated. He was going to have to show Gabriel what he was. He just hoped that what they had was strong enough to endure it.
The instant he stepped into the suite, he was greeted by his name being shouted eagerly and Reinhardt booming, “The lasagna has just come out of the oven!”
…okay, he’d wait until after dinner to show Gabriel what he was.
Of course, Gabriel had explained why Jack had stalked out, so everyone wanted to know how the talk had gone and what the plan was. Jack told them about the double nature of the organization – Overwatch the lawful peacekeeping organization, and the secret strike force that would accomplish what needed to be done regardless of public opinion. Naturally, Gabriel would lead that force with oversight that would be much looser than he’d led the council to believe. His explanations faltered to a stop as he realized that everyone was looking at him with surprise that hadn’t faded.
“…what?” he asked, blushing.
Reinhardt was the first to recover his voice. “I have never seen you speak with such confidence,” he said in what passed for his quiet voice. “It suits you.”
Guiltily, Jack glanced at Gabriel, but his expression was unreadable. “I had a good teacher,” he said softly.
There; that was a spark of surprise and warmth in Gabriel’s face. Jack smiled, and Gabriel’s expression thawed into a smile as well.
The rest of dinner went smoothly, everyone discussing the future organization, and all too soon he and Gabriel were retreating to their room.
“Jack,” Gabriel said, beckoning him over and wrapping him in a hug from behind. His teeth were light on the back of Jack’s neck, but Jack relaxed into his embrace with a quiet hum. “You love me,” he murmured.
“Yeah.”
“Even with…what we don’t talk about.”
Jack swallowed. “Yeah.”
Breath, warm against his ear. “Then what’s wrong?”
“I have to…” He shuddered. “If we talk about me, we talk about you. Deal?”
Gabriel hugged him tighter. “Deal. Jack…”
Gently, Jack freed himself from Gabriel’s arms and moved to the center of the room, where he’d have space. Then, without looking at his lover, he shook off the human shape he’d been wearing for the last few years and stretched, forelegs and hind legs and great golden wings. He shook out the feathers of his tail, shook his golden mane, and glanced almost fearfully at Gabriel.
The other gryphon seemed to be in shock.
Jack shrank back down to human form and stood uncertainly, waiting for his reaction and trying to brace himself for the worst.
“You…”
Gabriel shook his head, then shook his body and expanded into the most gorgeous gryphon Jack had ever laid eyes on. His front half was a black hawk-eagle, dramatic banding on his wings, but his back half was a black jaguar with only the shadow of faint gold on his flanks to indicate that he wasn’t a panther. He only had a few seconds to admire the sight before Gabriel, too, shrank back down to human.
“That’s why you never wanted a piece of my ass?”
That wasn’t the comment Jack had been expecting, and he blushed. “Yeah. I don’t have…anything to do it with, so…”
Gabriel crossed the room and wrapped his arms around Jack. “No wonder you could keep up with me,” he murmured, hand on the back of Jack’s neck. “I’m such an idiot. No wonder you were afraid it would affect us.” He paused. “You…like me biting the shit out of your neck.”
“Yeah,” Jack breathed, head on Gabriel’s shoulder.
“Even knowing what I am.”
“Especially knowing what you are.”
“I guess that explains why you stepped up to be the poster boy. Your mane is gorgeous, by the way. I want to run my fingers through it and scratch behind your ears and hear you purr and…” Gabriel laughed. “Fuck, I’m glad you are what you are. I was so afraid I’d save your life only to lose you. And you tried to tell me, didn’t you? But I didn’t let you.”
“Gabe?”
The arms around him tightened. “Mm?”
Jack nuzzled the side of Gabriel’s throat. “It’s either this,” he said between kisses, “or I’m going to cry.”
“Mm. I do kind of need to kiss the fuck out of you.” Gabriel fit actions to words, kissing the side of Jack’s neck. “And I think we should…re-affirm our relationship in the light of today’s revelations. What do you think, mi sol, you perfect golden thing you?”
“Mmm. I think I need to find a good nickname for you, but it’s hard to think about anything besides how much I want you when you do that.”
“Do you want me to stop?” Gabriel asked with a wicked chuckle.
Jack smiled against Gabriel’s neck. “No.”
===
They decided not to bother with human marriage. The bruises on the back of Jack’s neck were enough for them, considering they couldn’t really consummate their relationship in their natural forms, and no paper trail meant it would be harder for anyone to prove anything. Overwatch was founded with a great deal of fanfare and publicity, Jack playing the role of wholesome heroic leader to the hilt while Gabriel stood back with an impassive expression. Officially, he was head of security, but Jack made sure that every word of his job description was ambiguous enough to allow what he wanted it to allow without sounding like it did.
Designing the Overwatch headquarters to be built in Zurich was, to Jack’s surprise, engrossing. He spent hours at a time working on the plans while lounging against an amused Gabriel. It was a nest, he realized after a few days. He was designing the nest his pride would live in. He was designing the nest for his mate. Suddenly, he felt a lot more domestic than he had ever expected to, and he snorted. What was next, wanting to have cubs?
Jack took a moment to seriously contemplate the thought.
Nah.
Maybe in the future, after his nest was complete, he’d develop the desire to procreate. Until then, he was just going to ignore the entire subject.
===
A few years later
===
“I’ve got good news and bad news,” Gabriel said, pulling his head out of the maintenance panel of the small ship.
They’d been flying back from a meeting in London and maybe being a bit more distracted by each other than they should have been when Jack noticed they weren’t headed towards Zurich and they’d gone from making out to frantically trying to find and counter whatever had been done to the ship’s controls. They’d just barely missed crashing straight into the Carpathian mountains and instead had come in for a rushed and rough landing in a pretty steep…valley? Gorge? Something with high, clifflike walls. And the sabotage had taken their communications down.
Jack sighed. “Give me the good news first, Corazon.”
“I can get it repaired enough to fly us home,” Gabriel said, coming over to give his mate a quick kiss.
“And let me guess, the bad news is that it’s going to take more than a few minutes.”
“How-”
“The sun’s already setting, and there’s a storm coming,” Jack said quietly. “The ship won’t give us more than shelter from the wind and snow. The inside temperature’s already dropping, and we have no food. If we want to survive…”
Gabriel looked away.
“I know you don’t like the idea of us both being gryphons at the same time, but Gabe…”
“We don’t have a choice,” he finished darkly.
Jack didn’t say anything. Although he didn’t understand why his mate wouldn’t want them to both be in their natural forms at the same time, he respected that boundary and didn’t press the issue or even ask for explanations. The whole concept made Gabriel deeply uncomfortable, and Jack didn’t want to do that to his mate.
After a few minutes of silence, Gabriel turned and pressed his face against Jack’s chest, a gesture of both needing comfort and submission, and one that alarmed Jack even as he wrapped his arms around Gabriel and mock-preened the man’s hair.
“I can try to keep you warm with my fur and my wings,” Jack murmured softly. “Delay when you’d have to shift, at least.”
Gabriel shuddered. “Thank you, mi sol.”
The ship, fortunately, was rated for cross-continental flights and a bedroom made up the back half. Jack pulled all the bedclothes off and wadded them against the headboard to help insulate his mate and waited for Gabriel to get settled before shifting to gryphon and curling up around him. Although Gabriel nestled close and buried his hands in Jack’s mane, within a few hours it was cold enough that Jack could feel the deep, full-body shivering. He whined in distress and half-lay on his mate, but the man pushed him gently away.
“Gonna change,” he said through chattering teeth.
Jack retreated to give Gabriel space to shift, then flowed back onto the bed to frantically lick his mate’s head
“I wasn’t built for cold,” Gabriel grumbled in the avian gryphon language.
Jack flopped down with one foreleg over his mate’s withers. “But is it better?”
Gabriel lifted his head and preened a few locks of his mate’s mane. “Much.”
“Then let’s get some sleep,” Jack purred. “My heart. My gorgeous shadow.”
“Flatterer. I love you.”
They curled up into a single, bicolored ball, each of them with his wing over the other’s head and head on his mate’s flank, and let sleep take them as the wind screamed outside like the souls of the damned.
=
Jack woke up with the weirdest metaphoric boner.
The storm had blown itself out and the sun had risen and he found himself absently grooming Gabriel’s flank, reveling in being able to smell his mate for the first time because human senses sucked and they’d never simultaneously been gryphons before. At the same time, Gabriel was preening the feathers of Jack’s back half, working his way deliciously down to Jack’s tail. It was…more arousing than Jack had expected it to be, somewhere on par with Gabriel’s hand on his balls. Jack had experienced arousal in his natural form before, but this was something different. Something…more.
“Jack,” Gabriel muttered, “why do you smell so good?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” Jack answered, licking down to the base of his mate’s tail and getting a surprised sound of appreciation in response.
Almost immediately afterwards, though, Gabriel let out a pathetic little noise. “Jack…don’t, please.”
The lion-headed gryphon swung his head away from his mate entirely, trying to ignore the sweet musk filling his nostrils while at the same time, feeling his tailfeathers lift almost of their own accord.
Then Gabriel’s avian tongue probed his cloaca, making him yowl in sudden need.
“Fuck. Jack?”
It was hard to think. “Gabe?”
A birdlike whine. “I think I’m in heat.”
“In heat? But…”
Jack trailed off and swung his head back around. Gabriel’s feline tail had lifted, showing off not only his anus and testicles, but a small slit between them. His mate was an omega? Exceedingly fertile and rare enough that Jack had always considered them a myth or a misunderstanding, the males who were able to produce live young apparently did exist, and the evidence was staring Jack right in the…
…in the…
His feline tongue swept out and caressed Gabriel’s fur-covered testicles, eliciting a desperate sound.
“I’m sorry,” Jack said immediately. “I shouldn’t have-”
“Do it again!”
Jack nosed at his mate’s balls and licked them, then the slit. Gabriel moaned and shifted on the bed.
“I’ll change back,” Jack babbled, trying to think through the enticing scent fogging his brain and the new, foreign need that burned in his loins.
A second time, Gabriel’s tongue prodded Jack’s opening, and the lion-headed gryphon fairly roared at how much he wanted more.
“Jack.” Gabriel sounded just as needy, but also reluctant. “Mount me.”
“But-”
“Do it! Jack, I need you!”
Jack turned around on the bed, pulling his behind away from his mate. “I can’t,” he moaned. “I don’t have anything to penetrate with.”
Quick as thought Gabriel was on his feet, one clawed foreleg on Jack’s shoulder. He sank to the mattress in submission and shuddered as he felt that wicked, curved beak burrow through his mane and close gently on the back of his neck.
“Don’t bullshit me,” Gabriel hissed. “you’re an alpha.”
Lion-headed gryphons, always male, were maybe one out of two or three thousand births – a number that would seem higher if not for the relatively low population of the race. But they were brilliant leaders, even if they never seemed to have cubs as far as Jack had found in his research. He’d resigned himself to that, or at least he thought he had. Now…
“I swear, Gabe, I don’t have…”
The beak vanished, only to re-appear under his tail, Gabriel’s tongue prodding and caressing until something changed and for the first time, Jack felt the alien ache of an erection in his natural form.
“Jack, please. I need this.” Gabriel lay down beside him, head lowered in submission. “Mount me. Fuck me. Put out this fire before it eats me alive.”
“And if there’s cubs?” he asked shakily.
“We’ll deal with it later.” Gabriel uttered a pleading sound that had Jack on his feet purely by instinct. “Jack, my sun, please.”
Jack licked his mate’s head. “For you, my heart.”
It felt strange to crouch over his mate, to feel the phallus he didn’t know he had slide into Gabriel’s slit. But as they both called out in pleasure, it felt right. Gabriel bucked against him, the way he’d bucked against Gabe so many times, and Jack lowered his head to nip lightly at the back of his mate’s neck as he thrust himself deeper, deeper, as far as he would go. The orgasm took him by surprise and he bellowed in sudden satisfaction. Beneath him, Gabriel shrieked and went limp.
Jack dismounted and licked his head frantically. “Gabe, are you okay? I’m so sorry…I had no idea I could…I guess that’s why you wanted us to switch off being gryphons?”
Gabriel tucked his head under Jack’s. “There was an alpha in my pride. Older. Real asshole, but we were asshole kids. We mocked him for not having a dick. He always said alphas had the best dicks, too good for regular gryphons. That they only came out for an omega. That’s why I left home.”
“Do I need to kick his ass?” Jack growled in protective fury.
“God, I love you.” Gabriel shuddered. “Jack…”
He didn’t need to say anything else; Jack could smell it, the sweet musk coming back to fog his mind and make him ache with his mate’s need. More sure now, he mounted Gabriel and thrust in, in, roaring in relief that underscored Gabriel’s as he climaxed.
“How many…?” Jack panted as he lay beside his mate again.
“Fuck if I know. I’ve never been in heat before.” He preened Jack’s mane briefly. “I always thought I’d hate it, you know. But it’s different. It’s you.”
“I left home because of the mocking,” Jack said quietly. “How was I going to form a pride if I couldn’t even satisfy a girl. Never told anyone I wasn’t attracted to girls, that I wanted a big, strong man to dominate me.”
“I’m still going to,” Gabriel declared emphatically. “As soon as we get back, I’m gonna nail you until I can’t get it up anymore.”
Jack purred. “No arguments here. Again?”
The sweet musk was coming back.
“Again.”
Mount, thrust, and the cry of his mate’s satisfaction set him off.
“Almost makes me want to have you top me in human form,” Gabriel said lazily. “See if it feels as good.”
Jack licked him. “I’m sure I wouldn’t be as good. Do I need to kick that alpha’s ass?”
Gabriel chuckled. “Nah. I don’t need to prove myself to him.” He hummed thoughtfully. “I think one more and we can shift back and get this thing up and running.”
His mate’s need wasn’t as intense this time; Jack was able to go more leisurely, thrusting nearly two dozen times while Gabriel made delicious sounds underneath him until his voice spiraled up into a sweet cry and Jack roared, pumping seed into his mate and wondering how soon they’d know if they were going to have cubs.
Lazily content, they shifted back and cuddled for a handful of minutes until the afterglow of satisfying a heat faded. With Jack acting as extra hands and eyes, the repairs took less than an hour and within two, they were on their way back to Zurich. The ring of armed soldiers that surrounded the ship when they landed wasn’t a surprise, considering the communications equipment was still down, but they relaxed quickly when Jack stepped out with all the confidence of a lifetime’s worth of expectation coming to fruition at last.
Fortunately, there was enough concern about his and Gabriel’s health that a full meeting was postponed while the two of them ate and the ship was checked over. Jack was very glad that any irregularities in how much food he and Gabriel could pack away could be attributed to what SEP had done to them. The meal sent to the Command Suite could feed ten people, but between kisses and feeding each other and cuddling on the couch, they devoured it all over the course of two hours and then fell asleep until Ana knocking on the door three hours later woke them up.
===
That night, after a day full of reports and dodging their UN-assigned physician, Gabriel thoroughly asserted his dominance over Jack. They both spent the next day smugly relaxed, to the tolerant amusement of their friends, and the bruises didn’t fade for days. Neither of them knew how frequently Gabriel would go into heat, or if he even would go into heat unless Jack was also a gryphon. Regardless, knowing that he was dominating a willing alpha put an extra bit of swagger in Gabriel’s step and knowing that he’d been able to satisfy his mate in his hour of need made Jack’s smile extra bright.
Initially, they couldn’t find a trace of who had sabotaged the ship. That was troubling until a more thorough sweep of the ship’s systems revealed it had been done by an omnic, and investigating that kept them distracted enough that they forgot all about the possibility of cubs until one morning, Gabriel’s pants just didn’t fit.
“The fuck,” Gabriel snapped in exasperation. “They fit yesterday! Jack, look at this.”
Jack looked over to see Gabriel holding his pants up. The soft curve below his navel kept them from closing by at least an inch.
Wait.
The soft curve…
“Gabe,” he breathed shakily. “Corazon…”
While Gabriel stared at him in wary confusion, Jack walked over and placed both hands on that gentle protrusion.
“You’re not going to just squish me into them, mi sol,” Gabriel said dryly.
“Gabe…you’ve been eating a lot the last few days.”
His mate scowled. “Are you saying I’m fat?”
Jack shook his head. “I’m saying…I think you needed that extra food.”
The blood drained from Gabriel’s face.
“I’m saying…I think we need to have a talk about our future.”
“You knocked me up,” Gabriel whispered in horror.
Jack pulled his hands away as if Gabriel’s skin had burned him. “You don’t have to keep them! It’s your body and your choice.”
“You’re suggesting I kill my babies?” he snarled, now hunched over slightly with his arms wrapped protectively around his lower abdomen.
“Of course not!” Jack hugged Gabriel to his chest, one hand resting on the back of his neck. It was several long moments before the other man shuddered and clung to him. “You’re my mate,” he murmured while Gabriel buried his face in Jack’s shoulder. “I support you completely. We’ll do what you want to do.”
“I don’t know what I want to do,” Gabriel whispered. “I was always repulsed by the idea of being a baby-incubator, but that was before I met you. Before I realized that I don’t mind giving that part of myself to you because I know you won’t take advantage of me.”
“Damn straight I won’t,” Jack murmured. “If you hadn’t told me to mount you, I would have changed back and gone out into the snow.”
A phone chirped.
“You have a meeting to go to,” Gabriel said quietly.
Jack kissed his temple. “I do. And you have a stomach bug or something, you’re not feeling well so you’re staying in bed for the day.”
“Good call.” He straightened up and kissed his mate. “I’ll think it over. Thank you.”
“I’ll be back to check in as soon as I can. I love you, Corazon.”
“I love you, mi sol.” Gabriel paused. “I’m going to curl up in your bed.”
Softly, Jack smiled. “Okay.”
=
As he left the meeting room, Ana hurried to catch up to him. Jack didn’t slow down.
“I have never known you or Gabriel to be ill,” she said crisply.
Jack shrugged. “He’s not feeling well. I don’t know what else to tell you.”
“You could start with the truth.” Disapproval dripped from every word. “Tell me honestly, Jack – are you a gryphon?”
Shock nearly made him trip over his own feet. “What?”
“Yes or no, Jack.” Ana pinned him with her fierce eyes, trapping him against the wall with nothing but the force of her gaze.
“How…”
“You are young. I am very old. Yes or no?”
“Yes. How…?”
Ana smiled just a little. “The back of the neck is not a common place to be sporting bitemarks. Is Gabriel…?”
“Yeah.” Jack started walking again, and Ana followed.
“I assume that when you were stranded in the mountains overnight, you…formalized your relationship.”
Jack did his best to ignore the blush climbing up his cheeks. “You could say that.”
“And now, he is pregnant.”
This time, Jack did trip. “How…”
Ana sighed, eyes rolling briefly heavenward. “Because it’s been just long enough for him to start to show. I am very old, Jack.” She stopped at the door to the command suite. “May I come in?”
Jack opened the door and waved her inside. “Corazon,” he called as the door closed behind him, “Ana’s here and she knows. Not because I told her. She already knew.”
Gabriel emerged in a tee-shirt and a pair of Jack’s flannel pajama bottoms, arms crossed. “And you knew how?” he demanded.
“I am a…think of me as a phoenix, but Egyptian and without the fire,” she said, unperturbed. “How are you feeling, physically?”
“Fine, I guess.” Gabriel shrugged and hugged Jack from behind, the gesture half routine and half meant to conceal his torso. “You’ve been a transhuman this whole time and you didn’t tell us,” he said in a near-accusation.
“Neither of you seemed to be aware that you were both gryphons,” countered Ana mildly. “I didn’t want to be the one to spoil the surprise. I knew Jack had to be an alpha when he told us about the plan for Overwatch. But you, Gabriel…I did not know you were…” She fished around for the right words. “Male with the gift of life. Not until today.”
Gabriel let out a short, dry laugh, the sound muffled by Jack’s shoulder. “I still don’t know what I want to do. I didn’t exactly ask for this, I was perfectly content just being a man. I don’t even know what I’m volunteering for if I go through with it.” He pressed his face against Jack’s back. “But if I decide not to just because it’s going to be uncomfortable, then aren’t I a horrible person?”
Jack turned around to hold his mate to his chest. “Never,” he murmured into Gabriel’s hair. “You didn’t ask for this. We didn’t discuss it. I won’t think any less of you no matter what you choose.”
“What if one of them’s…like me?” Gabriel whispered. “What if one of them’s like you? What if they’re normal? Can we even raise kids? How long will they need to nurse, am I going to be able to feed them all? Am I even going to produce milk?”
“You will not lactate,” Ana volunteered. “You would need to find a wetnurse.”
“And a midwife,” Gabriel added. “Fuck. Where the hell am I going to find someone who knows about male gryphons giving birth?”
Jack’s breath caught. “Corazon, does that mean..?”
Gabriel froze. Then he trembled, fingers digging into Jack’s arm hard enough to bruise, and let out one jagged sob. Jack shook himself out into fur and feathers, a great lion-headed beast purring thunderously and licking the man who knelt on the floor and buried his face in his mate’s golden mane, sobbing. Ana watched, sympathy bleeding from her eyes, but did not intrude on such a private moment.
“I don’t, but I do,” he whispered into Jack’s mane. “I don’t want people to think I’m some submissive cuntboy. But I don’t want to kill our cubs if that’s the alternative.”
Jack shrank back to human to kiss Gabriel’s tears away and hug him. “Anyone says anything, I’ll fuck them up. You’re the man who tops an alpha. Moments of vulnerability are not weakness.”
Gabriel choked out a laugh. “We’ll need to think of names.”
“Gabe…”
“You’re going to be a father, Jack.”
Although he didn’t quite sob, it was Jack’s turn to cry and he covered his mate’s face in teary kisses.
“Besides,” Gabriel chuckled weakly, “we both know that the only thing scarier than me angry is Ana angry, so really I’m just upgrading from manly rage to Mom Rage.”
From the side, Ana said, “I may be able to find you a midwife and a wetnurse; I have many contacts in the supernatural world. But Jack, I would advise you to confer with your prides if at all possible.”
“Mine can rot in hell,” Gabriel snarled. “Fucking backwater machismo assholes always talking about how if they found an omega, they’d pass him around like a fucking party favor. I lived every day in the fear that I’d go into heat and get gang-raped, and my best-case scenario would be the middle-aged alpha claiming my ass as his personal fucktoy.”
“Mine’s not nearly that bad,” Jack reassured him. “European pride that came over with the pilgrims and joined a native pride. Until you went into heat, I thought gryphons like you were just a legend because the pride’s history held that the native half of the pride was founded in the distant past by two males, both exiled by their prides. They decided they needed to attract some females, so one of them had a bunch of babies and they were like oh no, who will help us take care of these helpless cubs? and they got like a dozen females from other prides that way.”
Gabriel laughed. “I think I like your pride already.”
===
Jack was very glad he’d been thinking nest when he designed the Overwatch compound, because aside from the secret ladder connecting his office to Gabriel’s three floors below, he’d also built in a love-nest that looked like a maintenance shed, accessible through a passage from the command suite. It was exactly the sort of thing they needed – close enough to get to easily while still feeling remote and secure. He’d wanted to take Gabriel to Indiana immediately, but arranging the absence of the Strike-Commander was going to take at least a few days and in the meantime, one of Ana’s inquiries had born fruit.
“Angela Ziegler,” said the young woman standing in front of his desk. She looked like she couldn’t be a day over eighteen, slim and fresh-faced with soft blonde hair and big blue eyes. “Captain Amari reached out to me regarding your need for a…discreet and reliable personal physician.”
“I do, indeed, have such a need,” Jack said, standing to shake her hand. “Did she tell you the specifics of your patient?”
“She did, and I would like to examine him as soon as possible.”
“In a moment,” Jack said. “But first, I would like to inquire as to your qualifications.”
Angela laughed, the sound like tinkling silver bells over a mountain stream. “I am a unicorn. We are naturally possessed of great healing powers.”
Jack relaxed. A unicorn! If he was going to entrust the health of his mate to any creature, that would be the one. “Thank you,” he said warmly.
She laughed again. “You are protective of your mate; that is good. May I examine him now?”
“Of course. I’ll take you to him myself.”
Angela followed him professionally as he led the way to the command suite, chin up and eyes straight ahead. She glanced briefly around as he waved her inside, no doubt judging him by the quality of his nest.
“Corazon,” Jack called, “are you busy?”
“Fucking paperwork,” Gabriel called back. “Never too busy for you, mi sol.”
He strolled out of the room that was a combination office and sitting room, loose tee-shirt that no longer hid his “cub bump”, sweatpants and bare feet, and stood still while Jack hugged him and lavished him in light kisses meant to replace the grooming he couldn’t do in human form. Then Jack bent to press his head to Gabriel’s chest and shivered as his mate nipped the back of his neck gently.
“Gabriel Reyes, I presume?” Angela held one hand out to him. “I am Angela Ziegler, unicorn and physician. Ana Amari said you were gravid and in need of medical supervision.”
Gabriel grinned at her. “This handsome jerk knocked me up, yeah.” He hugged Jack and kissed his mate’s hair. “And I don’t have the slightest clue what I’m doing, or supposed to be doing, but I don’t want to fuck this up,” he finished more solemnly. “I’ll be the best fucking patient you ever had, I swear.”
“I am happy to see you both so devoted,” Angela said, smiling. “Let me examine you, and then we will discuss your condition and what must be done to keep both you and your cubs healthy.”
Although he didn’t say he was relieved, Jack could feel some of the tension drain out of Gabriel.
===
Neither of them were comfortable with the idea of Gabriel being away from Angela for too long, and with how soon Gabriel would no longer be comfortable in human form, Jack scheduled their trip for within the next few days. The cubs – three of them, Angela had said – were growing fast, and although they were small individually, together they would easily match or exceed a single human baby.
“I don’t want stretch marks,” Gabriel grumbled after the unicorn had left. So far, he wasn’t distended past what a hefty meal would do to his abdomen, but that wouldn’t last.
“I’ll oil you up,” Jack offered cheerfully, head dipping down to kiss the cub bump that had practically doubled since they first noticed it. “Keep that skin nice and supple.”
Gabriel didn’t look cheered. “I can’t fuck you. I know she said it was okay, but…I don’t want to put pressure on them.”
Jack straightened up and laid his head on Gabriel’s shoulder, one hand under his shirt over the bulge. “There’s other ways to get each other off, Gabe.”
“Don’t mind me,” he sighed, pulling Jack closer. “It’s just sinking in finally that this is really happening, and I’m going to whine a lot.”
“Whine as much as you want, Corazon,” Jack murmured. “I’ll be here for you, doing my best to make sure you’re comfortable and happy.”
Gabriel nuzzled Jack’s hair. “I don’t deserve you, mi sol. You let me dominate you, you put up with my shit, and you fuss over me. You should have a harem fussing over you, and instead you’re being all domestic and nurturing over one insecure omega.”
“You say that like you’re some sort of second-class freak and not the stunningly attractive and amazing treasure you are,” Jack teased. “You keep that up, and I’m going to have to show you what ‘fussing over your mate’ really looks like.”
“Jaaaaaaaack.”
Jack kissed Gabriel’s neck. “Yes, my love?”
“Your hand…”
Grinning, Jack slid it half an inch further down to fully cup his mate’s package. “I was wondering how far into your pants I could go before you said something.”
Gabriel groaned as gentle fingers caressed his nuts and his cock twitched. “I can’t…”
The lips on his neck sucked gently while teeth scraped. “You don’t have to.”
“But…”
Now massaging his mate to full arousal, Jack grinned. “Do you want me to stop?”
Gabriel leaned back, letting his head rest against the back of the couch, his throat exposed, surrendering to whatever his mate was going to do. “No.”
Jack kissed that exposed throat before sliding off the couch to kneel in front of his mate, tugging the sweatpants down until his erection sprang free. It wouldn’t be the first time either of them had gotten mouthy with the other, but generally they reserved such acts for when they didn’t have the time or the freedom for full intercourse. Normally, he’d just go down hard and fast, doing his best to mimic their usual sexual exploits. But this was different; they had no pressing engagement to keep in mind.
To that end, Jack licked slowly up the side of Gabriel’s shaft before laying a delicate kiss on the head. He was going to drive his mate crazy and enjoy doing it. While Gabriel moaned and made increasingly-urgent sounds of enjoyment, Jack switched up techniques: stroke the shaft slowly, suck lightly but just the head, massage the balls while kissing the shaft, hold the whole length in his mouth and hum. That last wasn’t planned – while trying to get all the way down, he discovered that his forehead was pushing lightly against his mate’s cub bump and the reminder that they would be having cubs brought an involuntary sound of delight. Now too excited to continue the slow torture, he sucked eagerly and insistently, caressing his mate with his tongue and humming while Gabriel clutched the cushions of the couch and expressed his appreciation in broken phrases and the repetition of his mate’s name and nickname. Jack swallowed as his mate climaxed, licking him clean before tucking him away again, and climbed back onto the couch where Gabriel slumped against him in contentment.
“I really don’t deserve you,” he sighed, face buried in Jack’s chest.
“Too bad,” Jack teased, kissing his hair. “Shoulda thought about that before you claimed me our first morning together in SEP.”
Gabriel tried to hide his laughter behind a growl. “Hey, how was I supposed to know you were an alpha and that I’d fall in love with you and then be willing to have your cubs years in the future?”
“Not my problem. You marked me, you claimed me, you’re stuck with me.” Jack grinned. “And if anyone in my pride says a damn thing about you, they’ll find out exactly how authoritative a gryphon without a dick can be.”
Laughing helplessly now, Gabriel slid down until his head was in Jack’s lap. When the storm of hilarity had passed, he rolled over to peer up into his mate’s face. “I’m going to be a gryphon for two months,” he said. “How am I going to make sure you know I’m the dominant one without being able to fuck you?” The teasing tone didn’t completely cover up his insecurity. The fact that Jack seemed to be taking the question seriously was reassuring.
“I’ve never seen your cock in gryphon form,” he said slowly. “If it’s not too big…and I know the barbs aren’t actually sharp or painful to a female gryphon, but I think I’d prefer seeing if a condom or two will smooth them out a bit, keep them from causing damage to my more sensitive orifice…”
“Damn it, Jack, how are you this perfect? You know what,” he continued as his mate blushed, “don’t answer that.”
Gabriel rolled over again so that he was facing Jack’s crotch and wrestled with pants and briefs until he was able to take his mate’s cock into his mouth and suck in a very determined fashion. Jack’s protest died in his throat and he let his head fall back, not objecting in the slightest to Gabriel’s emphatic oral argument.
“Ohhhh Corazon, Corazon, te amo, oh, mi rey, oh-” Jack’s eyes rolled back as he came to the pulsing delight of his mate trying to swallow him whole.
Smirking, Gabriel returned the favor and licked his mate clean before tucking him back away.
“Oh my god, Gabe, how was I lucky enough to have been drugged and kidnapped with you?”
The complete absurdity of the heartfelt statement was so unexpected that all the tension of their current situation popped. Gabriel buried his face in the front of Jack’s pants and laughed.
===
“This is as close as I can get,” Jack said as he brought the small ship in for a landing.
The clearing was an oval about one hundred feet across and three hundred feet long, with an actual log cabin just off from the center. Only one path led out into the woods.
“Visitor check-in?” Gabriel asked.
“You got it. It’s about a twenty-minute hike from here to the pride settlement on two feet, less on four.”
Gabriel stretched, hands pressed to his lower back. “Considering your cubs are feeling like bowling balls today, I think I’d prefer four.”
Jack nuzzled his mate’s neck. “Or you could ride in style on my back. Up to you.”
“I may take you up on that later.”
They exited the small ship, sealed it, and went over to the cabin where an elderly woman was sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch, rocking and knitting.
“Granny Whitecap,” Jack said respectfully. The woman looked up, put her knitting down, and grabbed a clipboard hanging from the arm of the rocking chair. “Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes, my mate.”
The woman did a double take at Gabriel, then squinted at Jack. Her eyes were a fierce gold, Gabriel noticed, and the long braids of her hair were snow white, but her face was brown and wrinkled.
“Jackie?”
“He’s bearing my cubs,” Jack said quietly. “We’ve come seeking wisdom from the elders.”
That weathered face broke into a broad grin and the woman put both clipboard and knitting in the chair as she got up and pressed both hands to Gabriel’s abdomen in a way that spoke of decades of experience.
“Hm,” she said, feeling around while Gabriel tried not to wince. “Three cubs. Two boys and a girl. First litter?”
“Uh, yes,” Gabriel said hesitantly.
She cocked her head to the side, one bright eye examining both of them as though looking for lies. “How long have you been mates?”
“That’s complicated,” Jack said diffidently. “We were living as humans and switched off being in our natural forms until last month.”
The old woman snorted. “You younglings and your human fascination. Go on up – not like that, you’ll stress the cubs – and see your mother. Make her day, you will. Neither your brother or your sister have taken mates yet.”
Jack stepped forward and hugged her. “Thank you, Granny.”
“Such a good boy,” she murmured, pleased. “Go on, change, let me see your handsome mate.”
With a nod of his head, Jack indicated to Gabriel that they should get off the porch. Once on the grass of the clearing, Jack shook himself out, stretched his wings, and yawned. Granny Whitecap beamed proudly at him, then looked pointedly at Gabriel. He, too, shed his human form and stretched, feeling how much more comfortable the cubs were sitting now that he was in his proper shape. The elderly gryphon cooed appreciation from the porch and waved them towards the path.
Gabriel followed Jack down the broad path, not entirely at ease among the ancient trees. More than once he ducked his head, burying his beak briefly in his mate’s mane. Jack turned his head and licked Gabriel’s shoulder, offering wordless support before continuing. It felt like a green and shadowed eternity before the path opened up into a gentle – maybe not a valley, but a wrinkle in the forested mountains. The center was a broad, grassy field while huge A-frame houses had been built into the sides, between the trees, with one massive one directly across the field from the path. Gabriel guessed that with the cavelike basements under the main floor, each house could house almost a dozen gryphons comfortably. There were twenty or so houses built into the slopes ringing the field, with roofs that were either sod or harboring a truly impressive collection of moss. And there were gryphons everywhere. Lounging on decks built off the sloping sides of the houses, in chattering human-form groups on porches, sprawled in piles in the sun, and packs of cubs playing in the field.
As soon as they emerged into the winter sunlight, gryphons started calling out to Jack. Some of it was the usual – how are you, where have you been, you’ve been gone so long – and some of it was the expected inquiries about Gabriel. Who’s your friend, where are they from, that sort of thing. But about a quarter of the way up the field, a stocky golden-brown male and a few that were clearly his cronies swooped down and landed in front of them.
“Hey Jack, are you bringing back potential mates for your sister now?” the stocky male asked in a way that challenged Jack to object.
“Hi, Uncle Steven,” Jack drawled in the rumbling lion language. “Nice to see Pa’s still in good health.” The cronies tittered at that, while Steven’s feathers puffed out angrily. “Pa’s the oldest of the triumvirate males leading the pride,” Jack explained to Gabriel. “Steven’s his younger brother. He’s been trying to maneuver himself to where he can take over the position when Pa steps down, but mostly that gets ignored because everyone knows my brother John’s being groomed for it.
“So he’s a bully,” Gabriel said while Steven puffed up even more and the cronies tittered. “Alright.” He took a few steps forward, into sniffing range. “Hi. Gabriel Reyes. Jack is my mate.”
Steven half-reared in feigned surprise. “Well, so he is! Look at that, boys! The birdbutt got himself a mate. I bet you do it as humans ‘cuz otherwise, Jackie here’s got nothing to fuck you with.”
“We do, indeed, do it as humans,” Gabriel said, circling Jack to come from behind and mock-mount him. “But I’m the one doing the fucking. And if you’ve got a problem with my mate, then you’ve got a problem with me.”
“Gabe, sweetheart, he’s not worth it.”
A curved beak closing gently on the back of Jack’s neck for a second quieted him. Then Gabriel let go to preen his mate for a moment. “You’re an alpha, sunshine. They’ll treat you with the respect you deserve or they’ll back off out of fear. Either way is fine with me.”
“I should have known,” Steven sneered. “Dickless is just a big pussy after all!”
Gabriel used Jack as a launchpad, leaping from his mate’s shoulders to body-slam the stocky loudmouth, sending him tumbling to the ground from the surprise attack. Before he could recover, Gabriel had one clawed hind foot on his belly, one wing in his taloned foreclaw, and his beak on Steven’s throat.
The stocky gryphon struggled for a moment before going still. “You attacked me on pride lands,” he said ominously. “Boys-”
Before he could finish siccing his cronies on Gabriel, Jack roared.
All conversation and activity in the little valley stopped, and the number of gryphons visible tripled by the time the echoes of that shattering sound faded. Gabriel had never actually heard his mate at full voice before, and he was more than a little in awe at how loud it was, especially when he found himself crouching over Steven’s prone body in a gesture of submission. Steven and his cronies had apparently never heard Jack roar, either, because they were all either crouching or completely limp.
“Jesus Christ, Jack, what the fuck was that?” Gabriel wanted that to be indignant, but it came out cowed.
“As much as I would love to see you kick my uncle’s ass,” Jack said mildly, “please wait until after the cubs are born to do it.”
“Shit. Fuck.” Gabriel retreated to his mate, ducking under Jack’s head in apology and letting himself get licked. “I’m sorry, Jack. I’m an idiot. I was so pissed at him for insulting you that I forgot.”
Steven shakily climbed to his feet. “Forgot what?”
“I’m carrying his cubs,” Gabriel replied, half smug and half just happy because Jack being affectionate like this made it extremely difficult to feel angry. “I still could have kicked his ass, sunshine.”
“I know you could have,” Jack rumbled, “but I didn’t want to risk anything happening to the cubs.”
“You…” Steven sounded like he was shooting for outraged but only got as far as confused. “You’re male. You can’t…”
“I’m an omega,” Gabriel corrected him in a sharply smug voice. The cronies awkwardly started backing away. “And you’re a useless sack of feathers, from what I can tell.”
“Omegas aren’t real,” Steven said, but he didn’t sound like he fully believed that.
“Oh, really?” Gabriel shrank to human and unzipped his oversized windbreaker. His maternity shirt was black with red letters proudly proclaiming MY HUSBAND KNOCKED ME UP AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT. “I charge ten bucks to feel my stomach,” he announced. “Twenty if the cubs move.”
Jack’s whiskers angled forward in amusement and he crouched down. “Get on my back, sweetheart. I’ll carry you the rest of the way to my family’s house.”
Smirking at Steven, Gabriel settled himself on his mate’s back with both fists full of golden mane and let Jack carry him to what he guessed was the Morrison home, going by the fact that Jack stopped in front of it and a pale-gold gryphon flung herself from the porch to become a stout, middle-aged woman that laughed as Jack licked her face. When Jack crouched again, the woman took Gabriel’s hands and hauled him to his feet before hugging him carefully.
“I’m Jack’s mother, Martha.” Her eyes were blue, like Jack’s, and her hair was a curly blonde cloud around her head.
“Gabriel Reyes,” he answered, noticing that Jack had gone back to human.
“Well, Gabriel, I didn’t hear what Steven said but I’m going to guess it was insulting Jack and you stepped up to defend him. I approve, Jackie,” she teased her son. “Now come inside, both of you, and let me get you something to eat and drink while you tell me the whole story.”
By the time Jack and Gabriel got settled on one of the couches in the living room, Martha already had a kettle going on the stove and was arranging strips of shortbread and jerky on a plate that she set on the coffee table between them. A blonde woman about Jack’s age slipped into the kitchen just as the kettle started to whistle, and came out with mugs of herbal tea that she handed to Jack and Gabriel before curling up on one corner of the couch across from them. A man who looked like a more stern version of Jack with a short but unruly beard rattled down from the loft and nodded brusquely to them before sitting on the other corner, with Martha between them.
“Jack’s littermates, John and Jane,” Martha said. “This is Gabriel, your brother’s mate.” The slight edge in her voice carried implications of disappointment that neither of her other children had mates. “Jack, your father’s with the elders right now, but I don’t doubt he knows you’re home.” Her smile was warmly teasing. “Now. Tell me what you’ve been up to out in the human world, how you met, everything.”
Over tea and jerky and shortbread, Jack and Gabriel explained how they met in the military, how they were tapped for the Soldier Enhancement Program and became lovers, how Gabriel kind of revealed what he was during the Omnic Crisis but they didn’t talk about it until the Crisis was over and Jack revealed himself to explain why Gabriel should trust that he could pull off being the leader of Overwatch even though Gabriel had always been the dominant one of the pair. Then, sheepishly, they explained how they had switched off which one was in natural form until they’d been stranded in the mountains overnight.
“And, well…” Gabriel gestured to his shirt in conclusion. “But neither of us knows what we’re doing.”
“I thought the pride’s histories should have something,” Jack said, gripping his mate’s hand. “Considering the story of how the pride was founded.”
Jane looked confused. “What?”
John rolled his eyes. “Ignore her,” he said to Gabriel. “She didn’t pay attention to the pride’s storytellers much.”
“Neither did you, when you were a cub,” she shot back.
“Yes, but I’m not a cub anymore. If I’m to be one of the pride’s leaders, I need to know the pride’s history.” He shot his brother a tolerantly wry look. “We all expected it to be Jack, but he said he didn’t want to be a leader and ran off to do it anyway.”
“I didn’t want it,” Jack protested, blushing. “But then when Gabe told me about the UN wanting to form a peacekeeping organization, I realized I could do that, and that I wanted to do that. Maybe I just had to grow into it, or maybe,” he added in a teasing tone, “our pride just wasn’t big enough.”
“This is really good, by the way,” Gabriel said as he picked up the last piece of jerky on the plate. Jack had eaten a piece, but Gabriel had been grazing on it nonstop. “Not that the shortbread isn’t, but…damn this jerky just hits the spot.”
“My husband’s special recipe on wild venison,” Martha said with pride. “Jack, has he been eating enough?”
“He’s been eating a lot, both before and after we found out. I don’t know if it’s enough.”
“Now who hasn’t been paying attention,” Jane muttered.
“If I’d known I would find a treasure like Gabriel, I would have studied everything having to do with pregnancy and healthy cubs,” Jack shot back. “But I’m an alpha, and I didn’t find any record of alphas reproducing, so I thought…” He broke off, nuzzling Gabriel’s shoulder for a long minute. “I thought I would never have cubs,” he said quietly when he sat back up. “I resigned myself to that. I left home trying to get away from the destiny I was sure didn’t exist for me, and wound up running smack into it.”
John leaned forward. “Well, I’m glad you’ve found yours. It gives me hope that I’ll grow into mine, too,” he said lightly.
Gabriel grinned. “I have to ask. Is the beard trying to compensate for not having a mane?”
“Not all of us have Jack’s handsome face,” John joked. “But the girls seemed to like the mane, so I thought, why not?”
Jack grinned, too. “Is it working?”
“Well, Sandy Twofeather keeps joking that she’s going to take me as her mate just so she can make me shave it off, so…I don’t know.”
Martha looked at her two unmated children while they all laughed.
“When your father gets here,” she said, “I think I’ll have a talk with him about going back with you for a few months. Normally, the wife’s mother helps take care of the cubs before and after birth, but…”
“I wouldn’t trust my mother with a fake houseplant,” Gabriel said firmly.
“Exactly. Besides,” Martha continued, “I want to be there when my grandcubs are born. Jack, do you have a wetnurse lined up?”
“Uh…not yet. We’ve got a friend working on that. She found a medically trained unicorn to be on call, so I’m keeping my faith in her.”
Martha nodded approvingly. “Good, good. You’re staying for lunch, of course.” The steely glint in her eye warned them that it wasn’t a question. “You won’t deprive me of serving your mate a good, home-cooked meal.”
“Wouldn’t think of it,” Jack said smugly.
=
Jack’s dad, Jeremiah, stumped up the steps just as Martha and Jane were setting lunch on the table. John and Jack immediately climbed to their feet, but a hand on his shoulder kept Gabriel sitting in his wooden chair.
Jeremiah looked every bit like a mountain man. It was clear this was where Jack and his littermates got their height and build, although Jack had more of his mother’s face. That may have been her easy smile, however, because Jeremiah’s expression was grim and foreboding. Gabriel watched as each of Martha’s sons approached their father, bowed their heads, and waited for him to place a hand on the backs of their necks before taking their seats again. Martha and Jane went through the same ritual, although Martha got a kiss and a hug as well, and then he was sitting at the head of the table looking at the stranger sitting to his left.
“Pa,” Jack said quietly, “this is my mate Gabriel. We came here because he’s carrying my cubs and we don’t know what to do.”
Blue-green eyes examined Gabriel in detail, and he tried not to squirm at the memory of the shirt he now wished he hadn’t worn.
“Did you know what you were?” Jeremiah’s voice was deep and smooth and reassuring in a way Gabriel couldn’t describe.
“Yes, sir.”
“Did my son?”
Gabriel swallowed. “He did not…until I was in heat. He didn’t know he could sire cubs with an o…with a gryphon like me. I did.”
Jeremiah held him with his eyes again. “You didn’t want cubs.”
“No, sir.”
“Why did you change your mind?
Under the table, Gabriel took Jack’s hand. “Because I know that Jack will be there with me every step of the way, doing everything he can to make sure that his mate and cubs are healthy and happy. I’m not doing this by myself. I have the most amazing gryphon in the world as my mate, and he’s given me the chance to build the kind of family I never had.”
The grim, stony expression on Jeremiah’s face thawed into a warm smile, and he cupped the back of Gabriel’s neck with one hand. “Good. Welcome to the family. Martha! Dearheart, our son-in-law looks hungry.”
That, apparently, was the signal for everyone to burst into chatter and serve themselves. Jack and Martha both loaded Gabriel’s plate, and he was not about to object, not with how good everything smelled and how hungry he was.
As he dug in, Martha caught his eye and smiled. “Making cubs is hungry work,” she said. “How many are you eating for?”
Gabriel swallowed a mouthful of meat and potato. “Three cubs. Two boys and a girl, if Granny Whitecap is right.”
“Good first litter,” Jeremiah said. “Mind, here in the pride we have to balance the wants of the parents against what the land can provide.”
“This house would be awash with cubs otherwise,” Martha added wistfully. Then she gave Jane a pointed look.
The younger woman whined, “But John…”
“You know how it works,” John chided. “I’ll be joining my future mate’s family and filling their house with cubs.”
“I’ll do what I can to make sure Gabe and I can visit for midsummer,” Jack assured his mother.
Even Jeremiah was smiling at that. “I’d appreciate any opportunity to see my grandcubs. And, Jack, if the responsibilities of your pride make it hard to give your family the attention it deserves…we’re here.”
This time, it was Jack who took Gabriel’s hand under the table. “Although I hope we never have to take you up on that offer, I’m grateful that we have that safety net.”
=
After lunch, Martha showed Gabriel to a comfortable nest-box where he could revert to his natural form and nap while Jeremiah took Jack to the public building at the head of the valley to check the pride’s records and see what he could expect his mate to go through. Martha had already packed when Jack returned, his father having gone back ahead of him. Either he agreed with his wife or he’d lost the argument; Jack wasn’t about to ask which.
When Gabriel woke up, he declined to shrink to human until they got to the ship. Jack let Martha’s bags be strapped to his gryphon body, and the three of them licked and preened John, Jane, and Jeremiah before heading down the valley towards the path. It was a comfortably quiet walk through the woods, and Granny Whitecap chatted with Martha for a minute before they shrank back to human and boarded the ship. Jack made sure his mother and mate were both comfortable on the couches in back before he helped them buckle securely in for take-off. Gabriel explained that reaching the buckles was awkward for him now, and Martha tugged the straps warily, wholly unfamiliar with the idea of being tied down for safety. Jack tried to make the ascension as smooth as he could, and once they’d settled into their flight path he helped them both unbuckle and tuck the straps out of the way for the next few hours.
They talked about the next few months: Gabriel’s diet and where Martha would stay, what it would be like caring for three cubs, and names. Gabriel asked if J-names were a Morrison family tradition, and Martha laughed. It had been tradition that at least one cub in Jeremiah’s family bear a name starting with J, but her husband had a fondness for simple names and she didn’t mind him re-using some family favorites. They got into a three-way mock haggling session over who would name which cub, and under what conditions. Martha insisted on choosing a traditional name for the eldest, unless it was an alpha (in which case Jack got to choose the name without argument) or had Gabriel’s coloration. Gabriel had undisputed rights to name one cub with his coloration, and Jack kind of wanted to name his future daughter. In the end, they all agreed to make a list of three male and three female names and discuss it further when the cubs were born.
Gabriel zipped his windbreaker back up as they approached Zurich, and Jack assisted once again with safety straps before retreating to the pilot’s seat to take them in for as smooth a landing as he could manage. He had Ana in his ear almost as soon as he took the controls off of automatic, reassuring him that she was in the hangar with a VIP cart. The little four-seater with holographic privacy panels would ensure that Gabriel got back to the command suite as quickly as possible without stressing the cubs or risking discovery. She’d also taken the liberty of having a generous meal prepared, and it was waiting for their arrival. Jack thanked her profusely and warned her that they’d brought his mother back with them, which delighted Ana.
Martha wasn’t sure she liked flying in a vehicle, she confessed once the ship had come to a gentle stop in the hangar, but it was less unpleasant than she’d been afraid of. As promised, Ana was waiting with the cart, and she greeted Martha warmly while Jack helped his mate out of the ship and into the back seat of the cart. By the time Gabriel was settled and they’d stopped kissing, Ana had secured Martha’s bags to the back and the two women were watching them fondly.
“They’re adorable when they forget someone might be watching,” Ana commented mildly.
Martha beamed. “Jackie always was a sweet boy. I’m glad he found himself a man just as sweet.”
Gabriel’s lips twitched with the effort of holding back a grin. “Hey, I object to that remark,” he said while Jack blushed. “You have to get past my prickly outer coating of angry bitterness before you can get to my soft and gooey center. Isn’t that right, mi sol?”
“Yes, sir,” Jack teased.
This time, they only came up for air when the cart started moving and they realized the ladies had activated the privacy screens and were now chatting in the front seat. After a mutual shrug, they went back to kissing and mock-preening each other until the cart came to a halt and Ana announced that they’d arrived. Jack helped Gabriel to the recliner, and then almost defiantly got the bags while Ana tried not to laugh. Angela arrived while they were eating, Jack fetching food for his mate and in some cases hand-feeding it to him while Gabriel reclined smugly, wallowing in the expression of devotion. The unicorn introduced herself to Martha, and they conferred briefly before Angela gently checked Gabriel over and pronounced him and the cubs in fine health.
“…but you shouldn’t stay in human form much longer,” she finished sternly.
Gabriel laid both hands on his abdomen. “Don’t worry. I’m not planning on it. Jack, wasn’t there a Greek god who swallowed his kids? I feel like that.”
Jack opened his mouth to answer, and then his brain caught up. “They’re moving?”
“Feels like they’re fighting, honestly.”
Within a handful of heartbeats, everyone in the room had their hands pressed to the cub bump.
“They’re moving,” Jack whispered reverently, blinking tears free to trail down his cheeks. “Hi in there, little Jason! Hi, Jacob! Hi, Janet! I’m your daddy!”
“You’re not naming our daughter Janet,” Gabriel said, rolling his eyes and trying to hide how moved he was.
“Of course not,” Martha teased. “She’s going to be Josephine.”
Gabriel snorted. “Don’t listen to them, Jade. You’re my little girl, and I’ll make sure you get the coolest name.”
Jack lifted his hands from his mate’s abdomen to cup his face and kiss him. “Jade is a beautiful name,” he said when he let Gabriel up for air.
Gabriel’s eyes were wet as he beamed up at his mate. “I’m pretty chill with Jason, too.”
They both looked at Martha while Ana watched in amusement.
“They’re both good names,” she agreed. “I was thinking maybe Jesse for the third.”
“I’m pretty chill with that, too.”
“Of course,” Jack pointed out, “this is all dependent on how they look when they come out.”
Gabriel groaned. “Well, one of them just kneed me in the spleen. Can I get some help getting out of this chair? I wanna go gryphon so they have room to do their gymnastics without keeping me from getting my beauty sleep.”
“We’ll leave you to get settled in,” Angela said primly. “But remember, I will be on call if you need me.”
“And I’ll be in the next room,” Martha said, giving Gabriel a hug that shifted into helping Jack pull him to his feet.
The three women vacated the central room, leaving Gabriel to shake himself into fur and feathers. Jack scratched the feathers on his head gently, peppering his mate with kisses, before they retired to the bedroom. Carefully, quietly, they discovered that Gabriel was still able to mount Jack in his natural form, although it took considerably more improvisation and creativity than they’d anticipated. Reach-around and biting were obviously off the table, but the condom-covered nubs around the head of Gabriel’s penis were not just for ‘her’ pleasure; Jack enjoyed them thoroughly as well. Afterwards, Jack joined his mate in natural form and they spent a pleasant hour just grooming each other before curling into a bicolored ball and drifting contentedly off to sleep.
===
The biggest challenge over the next few weeks was keeping Gabriel from going stir-crazy. Between Jack and Martha, he had more healthy and delicious food than he could eat and his front and back halves were groomed daily. The hidden lovenest was very comfortable and his larger gryphon body was more than able to comfortably house his growing offspring without impeding him. Jack spent every night with him as a gryphon, usually after having been mounted, so all of his physical needs were met.
That left the mental ones.
Letting Gabriel get bored was generally accepted as being a bad idea. He needed things to do, ideas to chew on, or he started coming up with things to keep himself entertained. Fortunately, Blackwatch also needed tending – both the agents and the events happening in the world. The little data pads he used, however, were completely unacceptable for a gryphon’s needs. It took four hours of improvising before they were able to get the giant projection screen in the hidden lovenest slaved to a pad and work out a screen-friendly (but still conductive) covering for his talons. It was more than worth it, though; Gabriel was able to keep on top of Blackwatch missions and things that should be Blackwatch missions. He was able to forward things to Ana, who was ostensibly in charge of Blackwatch while he was supposedly on a highly-classified mission. And he was able to trade little love-notes with Jack throughout his busy days as Strike-Commander.
If not for Angela’s almost-daily reports on the cubs’ development, Jack and Gabriel could almost have forgotten that this wouldn’t go on forever – although as the first month ended the cubs started making their presence known more and more. The cub bump had come back as more of a spherical bulge, and Gabriel was having a harder time finding a comfortable position. Angela and Martha both coached Gabriel on what birth would be like, with Martha providing more detailed descriptions that both unnerved and reassured Gabriel. She also coached Jack in what he should do to make himself useful, either to support his mate or care for his newborn cubs. Ana located a wetnurse, a buxom young blonde who Ana said was a Milk Maid – apparently some sort of Nordic fertility creature. She was given a room in the command suite and immediately began pumping milk for bottle-feeding the cubs that would be arriving soon.
Jack found it harder to concentrate on his job as the big day approached. Gabriel was getting restless and frustrated, and all Jack wanted to do was devote himself to his mate. Finally, late one morning, Angela came to his office with Ana and Reinhardt in tow and declared that Gabriel’s continued absence on his secret mission was clearly interfering with Jack’s mental health and ordered him off active duty for a week. The other two would split his responsibilities. Jack was ready to argue, but then he noticed Ana beaming at him.
“Now?” he asked, pulse suddenly racing, mouth dry and hands clammy.
Angela smiled gently at him. “Now. I want you back in your quarters immediately.”
She didn’t have to say another word; Jack vaulted over his desk and nearly bowled all three of them over in his hurry. He raced through the halls, skidding around the corners, and practically flung himself into the command suite only to find his mate crouched on the floor in the central room with a rubber-coated metal tube to clutch and chew at, towels and sheets laid over waterproof tarp underneath him, and Martha filling a pot with warm water. To the side was a small nest-box with an electric blanket inside, covered with an actual sheepskin, and a stack of smaller towels for wrapping the cubs once they’d been cleaned.
“They’re coming,” Gabriel whined around the pipe, restlessly stretching and folding his wings.
Jack hugged him tightly. “I’m here, Corazon. I’m right here. You’re doing great.”
He was so focused on reassuring and comforting his mate that he didn’t notice Angela arriving or anything Martha was doing until Gabriel bit the pipe fiercely and uttered a strangled sort of scream. His mother snapping his name jerked his attention away from Gabriel.
“I need your hands!” Martha commanded.
“Yes, Ma!”
Jack lunged for his mother and found himself with a double-handful of membrane-and-goo-coated cub. Martha expertly stripped the slimy stuff away and gently, gently washed the cub’s face with a warm washcloth. The wet bundle of fur and soaked down shuddered, opened its beak, and uttered a thin mewling cry. Working on instinct, Jack set his firstborn on a towel and shifted to his natural form, purring deeply and washing the cub with his tongue. The mewling changed from desperate to inquisitive, and Martha smacked Jack’s nose away so she could make sure the cub was clean and wrap him in a towel.
“Change back and show your mate, Jackie,” she said firmly.
With trembling hands Jack accepted his towel-wrapped son and the bottle of warm milk the Milk Maid handed him. He wasn’t entirely sure when she’d emerged, but he didn’t care. Slowly, entranced by watching the cub in his arms figure out a bottle, he walked around to sit in front of Gabriel.
“It’s our son,” Jack murmured in awe. “He’s got my coloration. What do you think, Corazon? Jason or Jesse?”
“Jason,” Gabriel said shortly in the birdlike gryphon language, nosing gently at him with his beak. “Jason, our son. Such a good boy. He’ll look like you, I can te-” the word turned into a strangled shriek as Gabriel grabbed at the rubber-coated tube.
“Jack! Put him in the nest-box and give me your hands!”
Hastily, Jack laid his son in the box with the bottle next to him and took his place by his mother’s side as Gabriel strained and expelled a second cub. Again he held the wet bundle as Martha cleaned off membrane and birthing fluids, and kept hold of his instincts when the cub mewled. This one’s down was a darker gold, and his wet fur was dappled with rosettes. Martha wrapped him in a towel, Jack accepted cub and bottle, and went to show Gabriel.
“He’s got jaguar coloration,” Jack said softly as the cub suckled on the bottle.
“Jesse. Our son Jesse. He’s gorgeous.”
“I’m going to put him in with his brother. Their sister will be born soon, Corazon.”
“I’m going to cuddle the fuck out of them,” Gabriel declared.
Jack laid Jesse in the nest-box with his bottle and knelt by his mother, anxiously awaiting the birth of his daughter. Gabriel groaned and strained, but for a long minute only fluid came out. Then Jack saw it-
His hands were out to catch her before she had even been fully expelled. Dark as night, the same coloration as his mate, he watched in awe as his mother cleaned and wrapped this precious miracle and then, bottle in hand, he took her around to Gabriel’s head.
“Our daughter,” he breathed.
“Oh, Jack, she’s perfect! My little girl, my little shadow, my Jade!”
“In the box, Jack, and comfort your mate!” commanded Martha.
Jack leaped to obey. “Yes, Ma!”
Once Jade was settled with her brothers, Jack slipped back into his natural form and purred, licking Gabriel’s head while the darker gryphon strained and made unhappy sounds and finally expelled the afterbirth.
“Jack! Back up three steps. Gabriel! Three steps forward, and both of you shift!”
They both obeyed, Gabriel shifting to human once he’d walked out of the mess on the towels and Jack catching his exhausted mate before he fell. He carried Gabriel to the recliner and made sure it was back at a comfortable angle before grabbing a spare washcloth and wiping his mate’s face.
“Give me my daughter,” Gabriel demanded in a rasp, and Jack obliged. “My little shadow,” he cooed. Then he uttered a stream of affectionate Spanish Jack couldn’t completely translate except for mi and sombra.
Jack let himself be pushed into the other recliner, not objecting when Jesse was laid in his arms. Martha took Jason to the couch and hummed contentedly, while Angela checked the three cubs briefly to make sure they were healthy and feeding without issue.
“I will return at bedtime,” she told them, “but you are all doing fine. Gabriel, stay human until I return.”
“No arguments here,” he answered. “I have thumbs and lips again.”
“Eat if you can, drink as much as you can hold, and rest. I will inform Ana,” she added before slipping out of the room.
The cubs finished their bottles quickly, and Martha arranged them in the nest-box while Jack made his mate a sandwich and brought him a tall glass of milk. Gabriel only ate a few bites, but he drained the glass and then dropped into a doze.
“You should rest, too,” Martha told her son. “Cubs won’t sleep longer than two hours at a stretch for a few days, and neither will we.”
Jack hugged her. “Thank you for being here for us, Ma. I don’t know that we would have done nearly so well without you.”
Martha hugged him back. “You’re such a sweet boy, Jackie. Thank you for letting me be here to help with the birth of my beautiful grandcubs. Now, you lay down and rest and I’ll clean up.”
“They are beautiful,” Jack said fondly as he made his way back to the other recliner. Before he lay down, however, he kissed Gabriel on the temple. He smiled in his sleep, and Jack smiled back, feeling like he was full to bursting with love and couldn’t possibly rest.
Then he sat and leaned back in the chair. The instant his eyes were closed, he was out like a light.
=
A mewl woke Jack, and he flung himself out of the recliner and to the nest-box almost before opening his eyes. Someone had left three little bottles tucked in to warm, and the cubs were starting to wake up from their first meal. Jack arranged the bottles so they were propped up on a folded towel, made sure all three cubs were drinking, and then reverted to gryphon to curl protectively around the nest-box. Within seconds, he was asleep again.
=
Gabriel was drinking water straight from the pitcher when Jack woke up with the scent of lasagna in his feline nostrils. Martha looked over as Jack shifted back to human.
“Did you prop the bottles up like that, Jackie?”
Jack stretched. “Yes, Ma.”
She smiled. “Good, good. You’ve got proper parental instincts. They’re sleeping, the little darlings, so come and help your mate to the table.”
Gabriel smiled up at Jack as he approached and put the pitcher down, arms out and lips pursed in silent demand. Jack grabbed the outstretched hands and pulled his mate out of the chair, only too happy to indulge him in a long kiss.
“How do you feel, Corazon?” Jack asked softly. “About being a male who can bear live young, I mean.”
“I almost want to go back to my pride and show off,” Gabriel murmured, nestled contentedly in Jack’s tight embrace. “They wanna mock me for being what I am? They can go fuck themselves. Look at our beautiful cubs, mi sol. I made those. Those came out of my body. I have the best of both worlds. I can make sweet love to you all night long and I can give you amazing children.”
Jack laughed as he released Gabriel. “Get you a mate who can do both, hmm?”
Gabriel beamed. “Damn straight.”
===
Angela slipped in after dinner, with Ana following. On the couch, sandwiched by his mate and mother-in-law, Gabriel proudly introduced Ana to the cubs and handed Jade over with only momentary reluctance when Angela requested he shift so she could assess his reproductive organs. She suggested he try to sleep as a gryphon, since he would need a full day’s worth of time in his natural form for it to heal. Ana congratulated them on beautiful, healthy cubs, and both women retreated again.
“Don’t worry about feeding them tonight,” Jack told his mate firmly, blunting the words with soft kisses. “You just rest and recover from being amazing. I’ll take care of feeding.”
Gabriel nodded, then solemnly went over to Martha and hugged her tightly. “For raising such an amazing son,” he said as he released her.
Martha blinked sudden tears away and hugged him just as tightly. “For being such an amazing mate to my son,” she whispered. When she let go, her eyes were wet. “Both of you, get as much rest as you can. They’ll start trying to figure out their legs by morning.”
Jack nibbled his mate’s ear lightly. “Want to sleep in the nest tonight, so the cubs don’t wake you?”
“Mm, only if you come put me to bed,” Gabriel purred.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing,” Martha warned them. “Believe me, Jack, that’s the first thing your father and I did that first night, as well.” Then she smiled. “Go do it anyway. You both deserve it.”
Blushing, they fled down the secret passage.
=
“Not that the sex wasn’t good,” Jack panted as they tried to take their clothes off while simultaneously kissing, “but god damn I missed you marking me, Gabe.”
Gabriel groaned. “Oh my god Jack, I need to be inside you so bad. Where’s the condoms?”
While Jack turned to fumble for them and the lube, Gabriel grabbed him and bit the back of his neck, making him shudder and moan. Teeth still assaulting his neck, Gabriel pulled Jack back into the nest and half-flung him onto his back. Then he pushed Jack’s thighs apart and bent to lick his cock, taking him from partially to wholly erect.
“This is to thank you for putting up with being mounted by a gryphon,” he growled before lowering his head for the fastest, most insistent blowjob Jack had ever experienced.
“You’re welcome,” Jack murmured, dazed, as Gabriel licked him clean and then quickly rolled a condom onto his shaft before it could soften too much.
Still shaky from his orgasm, Jack rolled onto his hands and knees and braced against the edge of the nest as Gabriel worked himself in with many groans of pleasure and desperate nips. They both panted for a minute once Gabriel had sheathed himself fully, and then the thrusting started. Gabriel didn’t last long, but the brief intermission gave Jack a chance to reload. The second round was more to their usual standards, and when they finally came, Jack just slumped over the edge of the nest as though he would fall asleep right there. Gabriel made sure they were both cleaned up, then made profuse apologies Jack didn’t pay attention to until something warm and wet was gliding over the throbbing bitemarks on the back of his neck.
“I really bit the shit out of your neck this time,” Gabriel said as he licked the area. “Broke the skin. I’m sorry, sunshine.”
Jack hummed contentedly. “Do you see me complaining?”
“Shut up and put your clothes back on before I keep you here for the night.”
Laughing tiredly, Jack leaned against his mate. “I love you, Gabe. Maybe we should get married. Or at least pay someone to falsify some records. We do have three kids now that are going to need birth certificates and probably adoption papers.”
Gabriel preened Jack’s hair. “We can talk about it with your mom and Ana. I gave birth and I’m exhausted, but Jack? I fucking love you with all my heart and I am completely behind the idea of making us official. Quietly. But you need to get dressed and go back before I really do keep you here for the night.”
“Okay, okay.” Jack hugged his mate one last time before climbing out to put his clothes back on. “Sleep well, Corazon. I’ll see you in the morning.”
By the time he was fully dressed again, Gabriel was sound asleep.
===
Martha was making breakfast when Gabriel emerged from the secret passage and accepted the cub that Jack offered him. Little Jade got thoroughly cuddled and cooed at before he finally lifted his head enough to kiss his broadly-grinning mate. On the couch, Ana was holding little Jason while young Fareeha gently stroked his fluffy down and fur. Little Jesse was attempting to climb his father’s arm and getting distracted by gentle fingers stroking his head.
“Sleep well, Corazon?” Jack asked.
Gabriel kissed him again. “Like a rock. How were the cubs?”
Jack’s cheeks flushed. “Ma tells me that I had them all drinking from their bottles in seconds, but I don’t remember it.”
“He’s a natural!” called Martha from the kitchen. “Everyone put the cubs back in their nest box and come to the table, breakfast is ready.”
Gabriel reluctantly put Jade in with her brothers and then, less reluctantly, let Jack push his chair in and then serve him. He ate as though he hadn’t been fed in a week, with tolerantly amused smiles from Ana and Martha and Jack doting on him. Jack guessed that Ana had been through something similar with Fareeha, and wondered if Egyptian phoenixes laid eggs. Then he took a moment to be glad that lion-headed gryphons were always male because he didn’t want to imagine what it would be like to squeeze a hard egg out of a cloaca.
After breakfast, Gabriel reverted to gryphon and Jack took the cubs out to set on a towel where he could curl around them and nap. Fareeha petted them gently, then stroked the feathers on Gabriel’s head as well before shyly asking if she could see Jack’s other form.
“She’s learning about other transhumans,” Ana said fondly.
Jack shifted to his natural form and purred as the girl – she looked about six, how old was she really? – petted his broad nose and furry ears. A few minutes later, Angela arrived and Ana collected her daughter and departed. The unicorn checked Gabriel over, then the cubs, and pronounced them all in good health.
The morning passed pleasantly, Jack keeping his offspring contained as they experimented with standing and attempting to move around, reveling quietly in his little family. After a little while, Martha joined him in her natural form and lavished maternal affection on her grandcubs.
Gabriel woke a little before noon, as the cubs were being fed, and shifted back to imperiously demand his daughter. The look on his face as he held Jade made Jack feel like he was going to melt into a puddle of joy.
===
The next few days were a comfortable, domestic routine of tending the cubs. Jack and Gabriel conferred with Ana before reaching out to a transhuman in the government. Within the day Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes were married, and had been so for a few months. Birth certificates were a bit trickier, but in the end all three cubs were given amended birth certificates showing that they had been adopted by Jack and Gabriel.
The first few nights, both parents slept in the common room either curled around the nest box in gryphon form, or stretched out in recliner or on couch. Thankfully, the cubs started sleeping almost through the night after that, and Martha suggested they move the nest box into their room. That raised the issue of how much longer she would stay with them, and how they would manage to raise any of their children with their demanding schedules. The issue became more urgent as the cubs grew more confident and inquisitive during the daytime. Thankfully, they tired fast and napped for hours at a time, but that wouldn’t last.
Martha gently repeated the offer Jeremiah had made, but Gabriel adamantly refused to give up custody of Jade. Thankfully, although they seemed to drink their weight in milk a day, the cubs would be eating solid food by the end of their first month and that would make both feeding and clean-up easier. Ana suggested Gabriel “return” from his “mission” with an injury that would make walking difficult, and work from the command suite until it had “healed”. Angela gave this plan her stamp of approval and concocted not only an impressive-sounding story but a mock cast for Gabriel to wear in the event of needing to be seen.
Reluctantly, Jack resumed his duties at the end of the week.
Being separated from his mate and cubs was slow torture, and he threw himself into his work with a fervor in order to distract himself. The best part of the day was when his official hours were over and he got to return to his little family. The cubs greeted him enthusiastically, Jesse in particular. He seemed fascinated with Jack’s mane, climbing into it at every opportunity and whining when he was forcibly removed. But as the days passed, it became increasingly clear that if they intended to keep custody of even one cub and still do their jobs properly, they would need a babysitter – one who was familiar with transhumans.
That’s when they learned that Torbjörn wasn’t just short, he was an actual dwarf.
“A word with you, Jack,” he said from the doorway just as Jack was getting ready to vacate his office.
“What is it?” Jack asked reluctantly.
“You’ve been a little…focused…the last week or two. You work like it’s the end of the world, and then you’re off like the hounds of hell were chasing you.”
Jack froze, frantically trying to formulate an explanation.
“So I was wondering…does this have anything to do with Gabriel’s so-called mission?”
“I…”
“And if so, did he…bring back any…important data that you’re…working with…after office hours?”
Jack sat on the corner of his desk and rubbed his temples. “If you’re trying to allude to something, just say it,” he sighed.
Torbjörn crossed his arm(s) and hmphed. “You look like a new father who hasn’t gotten used to the baby yet,” he said dryly. “I know Gabriel’s a gryphon-”
“What? How-”
“Back during the Crisis. No one heals that fast, especially not from a gut wound, unless a gryphon’s licked ‘em. So. Gabriel’s a gryphon. Now, some species, the males can bear young. Gryphons aren’t one of them, best of my knowledge, but-”
“You’re right, and you’re wrong,” Jack sighed. “Very, very rarely, a male has the ability to bear live young. Gabriel is one of those.”
The scowl that usually graced Torbjörn’s face dissolved into a gleeful smile. “Hah! So he has cubs! I knew he wasn’t injured. And you’re helping with them? Who’s the father?”
Jack’s expression hardened. “That would be me.”
“Shit.” Torbjörn sobered. “You’re a gryphon, too? That explains a few things,” he said when Jack nodded. “So the cubs…I’m guessing they’re starting to be a real handful, eh?”
“I have no idea how my mother raised me and my sibs without any of us getting ourselves killed.”
“I came to offer my services,” Torbjörn said respectfully. “My lab’s isolated and full of things that don’t get hurt easily. I can build your furry little terrors a nice jungle-gym to play in, and whoever you’ve got watching over them now can come and go as they please.”
Jack’s eyebrows drew together as he frowned. “Why? You never struck me as very interested in kids.”
Torbjörn shifted uncomfortably. “I’m a dwarf. We like our solitude so we can craft in peace, true, but there comes a point where the masterpieces we really want to create are from our own flesh and blood, and my time’s coming up. In a decade, maybe two, I’ll want to settle down and wrangle some little terrors of my own, and Fareeha’s too well-behaved to give me any useful experience. Why, she’s even mastered the lightning already! Doesn’t need the grounding bracelets I made her anymore.”
“Lightning?”
“Oh, yeah.” Torbjörn shrugged. “Her sire’s a Thunderbird. Guess he knew Ana from way back when. So. Will you let me help?”
Slowly, Jack smiled. “Come and let me introduce you to my family.”
===
Gabriel was touched by Torbjörn’s offer, and accepted with humble gratitude. Martha pronounced him ‘charming’ and approved of the plan, offering her experience for both the cubs and for his own use, years in the future. Sabine – Jack felt guilty about not knowing the Milk Maid’s name until now – also seemed charmed by the dwarf. Construction and furnishing of a playpen jungle gym and a comfortable sitting area for Martha and/or Sabine took only a few days, and on Saturday morning the whole family trooped down to Torbjörn’s lab to watch the cubs explore the tangle of wood, industrial carpet, and rope all contained within a 7-foot square enclosure that looked like a walk-in parrot cage.
To no one’s surprise, Jesse was the first to scale the overgrown cat tree and cling, mewling, to the roof of the enclosure. Jack patiently unhooked his son, who promptly squirmed to be set down so he could do it again.
“Just leave him,” Martha called as the cub mewled again. “He’ll figure it out.”
Somewhat uncertainly, Jack backed out and closed the door to stand next to his mate. Jade, meanwhile, was exploring every shadowy corner. Jason had discovered the knotted rope that hung from one corner and was about halfway up, beating his little wings in excitement. Jesse, realizing that no one was going to rescue him, began inching his upside-down way across the roof towards his parents to chirp indignantly at them through the bars.
“Don’t you talk to your father in that tone of voice,” Gabriel joked.
Jack leaned over to kiss his mate’s neck. “We’re going to need parent names, Corazon,” he murmured. “You get first pick.”
Gabriel snorted. “Papi.”
“I’ll take Dad, then. That way they sound completely different.”
“You’re a good dad,” Gabriel said, smiling. “But your son is still yelling at you.”
Jesse had righted himself and was clinging to the bars, tail lashing while he squawked sullenly at them.
“I don’t know what you think you want me to do,” Jack told his son, stretching one finger through the bars to rub gently against Jesse’s head. Immediately, the cub stopped squalling and closed his eyes happily, making Gabriel chuckle.
“I feel the same way, son.”
Grinning, Jack reached out with his other hand and stroked Gabriel’s hair.
“No fair, mi sol,” he grumbled, slowly leaning into the attention.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“God no.”
Torbjörn laughed. “You two are adorable. Go, enjoy some time to yourself. We got this.”
Martha stepped up and took over rubbing Jesse’s feathered head. “Go on, you two. They’ll be fine.”
With guilty looks at their offspring, Jack and Gabriel backed out of the lab.
“They’ll be fine,” Jack repeated, although Gabriel hadn’t said anything.
Gabriel lipped at his ear. “Jack…we’ll have the bedroom all to ourselves.”
Jack blushed as his cock realized what Gabriel was implying. “Oh.”
=
Jack hadn’t realized how long it had been since Gabriel had mounted him. He’d never thought he was the type that would consider a week of celibacy to be barely-tolerable, but then again Gabriel had never been gone that long on missions, either. Still, as Gabriel’s breath puffed hot against his shoulders, as teeth gently closed on the nape of his neck, Jack exulted in the rightness of having his mate’s cock inside him and expressed that eloquently with a long, wordless moan that begged for more.
“Ohhhhhhh mi sol, te amo,” Gabriel breathed as he buried himself in his mate’s warm, tight tunnel. “Have I ever thanked you for not wanting to top?”
“Screw topping you,” Jack panted, hips moving slightly to tease his mate. “It’s so much better being beneath you.”
Gabriel chuckled and began thrusting, one hand curled loosely around Jack’s dick. “Never thought an alpha would want to be dominated. Never thought I’d be the one dominating an alpha.”
It was a minute or two before Jack could think past the pleasure to say, “Never wanted to be dominant. Part of why I left home. No matter – nngh – how much – oh Gabe – my instincts screamed at me when you mentioned Overwatch, I – oh god yes, harder – only stepped up because I knew you would…would…Corazon, I’m co- ohhhhhhh.”
Jack and Gabriel sank against the side of the bed, Jack’s cheek against the fabric and Gabriel’s against his mate’s back. For a few minutes, the deep humming that passed for purring in human form was the only sound as they basked in the afterglow. Finally, Gabriel released his loose grip on Jack’s torso and leaned back to sit on his heels.
“You command Overwatch but I command you?” he asked lazily.
“Mmm. That’s the only way I’d ever be comfortable with being in charge, yeah.”
They removed used condoms and cleaned themselves up before sprawling in bed together, still naked.
“Jack?” Gabriel murmured sleepily.
“Mmm?”
“You make me glad I’m an omega.”
Jack snuggled a fraction closer. “Mmm. Te amo, Corazon.”
Smiling, Gabriel hugged Jack a fraction tighter. “Te amo, mi sol.”
===
With the addition of several cameras covering every angle of the enclosure, Jack and Gabriel were able to return to their duties secure in the knowledge that with the touch of a button they could check on their rambunctious cubs. All three of them got better at climbing, and the inevitable sibling rivalry set in. If one was doing something, the other two were quick to mimic, leading the first to lash out and the other two to lash back. Martha was quick to break that up with a stern noise that had all three cubs cowering. In the evenings, the cubs greeted their parents enthusiastically and despite how much Jack and Gabriel wanted to be impartial parents and love all their children equally…they each had their favorites. Jesse was happiest on his dad’s shoulder, doing his best to preen Jack’s hair, while Jade was almost never away from her papi.
“It’s normal to have a favorite,” Martha assured them with a sigh as she held a bottle for Jason. “Grandma usually picks up the third. I shouldn’t say it, but you were my favorite, Jackie. John was your father’s, and your grandmother babied Jane.” She sighed. “Hopefully, being left in charge of the house will have given her the nudge she needs to start acting like an adult instead of a spoiled cub.”
“I’d wondered,” Gabriel muttered. “Any idea how often I can expect to go into heat? We sort of forgot about that in all the cub fussing.”
“As long as there’s cubs to tend, you’ll be fine.” Martha gave him a wry grin. “That’s another reason grandma usually tends to third cubs – to keep from having more of her own.”
Gabriel held Jade just a bit more possessively, making them all laugh.
=
At six weeks old, the cubs were finally weaned. They held a thank you and farewell party for Sabine, and despite how close she and Torbjörn seemed to have gotten, neither of them seemed all that sad about it. Jack suspected they had made arrangements to keep in touch, but he didn’t ask. In their seventh week, the cubs started saying their first words in the birdlike gryphon language, delighting both parents because their first word was the gryphon equivalent of ‘dada’. Martha spent hours in gryphon form talking to them, and also teaching the language to Torbjörn so that he would be better-equipped to watch them when she returned to the pride.
Four months after they’d flown to Indiana in search of help and come back with Jack’s mother and hope, they slid three bonelessly sleeping cubs into metal dog crates lined with blankets and carried them aboard the small ship, Ana following with Martha’s bags. The two women hugged and said their goodbyes, and then Gabriel helped his mother-in-law buckle in while Jack prepared for takeoff.
The trip there was a lot more pleasant than it had been four months ago. Cautiously, they let the cubs out of their cages and buckled them into sturdy harnesses before plying them with cuddles and scritches. Jack brought them in for a landing in that same clearing, and they attached chains to the harnesses before opening the door and letting the cubs get their first whiff of the outdoors. Jason and Jesse went wild, sniffing everything and leaping around. Although they wouldn’t be able to fly for a few months yet – thankfully – that didn’t stop them from trying their best. Jade, by contrast, seemed offended by grass and dirt and tried to go back into the ship.
“No, Sombra,” Gabriel teased her, reeling her in and picking her up. “You’re going to meet your dad’s side of the family whether you like it or not.”
Martha rolled her eyes tolerantly. “You keep calling her that, she’s going to think it’s her name.”
“Nothing wrong with having two or three names,” Gabriel retorted, grinning. “Just because your pride doesn’t do middle names…”
When they finally made it to the cabin, the boys decided they were shy while Granny Whitecap chuckled and lavished attention on Jade.
“Such a pretty girl,” she cooed. “And look at you,” she said to Jesse, who was now pawing at her heavy robe. “You’re going to be quite the charmer when you grow up. I bet you’ll take after Jack,” she told Jason. “Ah, Gabriel, all your children are lovely, but I can’t wait to see your beauty of a daughter. She’ll be beating the boys off with a stick.”
Gabriel straightened proudly under the compliments. “Thank you, Granny Whitecap.”
“Go on now,” she said, shooing them all towards the trail. “See what the other two have been up to in your absence.”
One by one, they shifted to gryphon and made sure their favorite cub was settled on their back before trotting up the trail. Jesse sat proudly on Jack’s head while he held the chain in his teeth; Jade crouched on Gabriel’s back, occasionally lifting her head to sniff the wind, while Jason did the same on the back of his grandmother. Once they came out into the valley, a series of avian calls echoed from house to house and within seconds, it seemed, half the pride was watching from porches or yards and cubs were barreling towards them, only to be called away by their parents. Jason decided he wanted to get down and play, squawking indignantly at the chain Martha held in her beak and running ahead to try to say hello to the next cub only to find himself kept just out of reach.
The stocky, golden-brown gryphon that circled and landed in front of them wasn’t a surprise.
“Well, well, well,” Steven sneered. “Look who’s finally decided to show his face again. And you can’t even control your cubs! What’s that? Hmm? Nothing to say?”
Jack growled deep in his throat.
Tail lashing slowly, Gabriel reached over and gripped the end of Jesse’s chain close to the harness, lifting the squalling cub off his father and setting him on the ground where he promptly stepped on both Jesse’s and Jade’s chains. “Kick his ass, sunshine,” he said in a tone of anticipatory malicious glee.
Great golden wings spread as Jack stretched and shook, his mane like a waterfall of gold in the sunlight. “You had something to say, uncle? About my cubs, or maybe my mate?”
Uncertainly, Steven glanced around. That sure was a lot of witnesses, and none of his cronies had come to back him up.
“Or maybe you’d like to finish what you started with my sweetheart. He did attack you on pride lands.”
Gabriel perked up while Martha paced forward to take over stepping on the chains and lift Jade off her papi’s back. Steven’s ear tufts went back and his tail drooped to hug one leg.
“Of course,” Jack continued, “if you don’t fight either one of us, it’s as good as a loss only everyone knows you were too cowardly to actually take your chances.”
“I could always attack you again,” Gabriel offered silkily. “You said some very uncomplimentary things about my mate.”
“And I did promise to let you kick his ass after the cubs were born,” Jack added smugly.
Gabriel took a couple of steps forward. “What’s it going to be, Steven? Get your ass kicked by a man who bore his mate three gorgeous cubs, or run away with your tail between your legs?”
Steven drew himself up to his full height, mantling slightly. “I don’t have to lower myself to deal with you,” he declared loftily.
A second later, he was leaping into the air with a startled shriek while Gabriel’s beak snapped shut on empty air where his wing had been a moment before. The laughter, both human and avian, rippled up and down the valley with several mocking comments floating up after Steven. Jack and Gabe both shifted back to human, each intent on fiercely kissing the other, which caused cheering and more than one appreciative whistle.
Two more gryphons circled and landed, one the same tawny as Jack and the other a darker brown with banding. They shifted to human, the female becoming a slender woman with coloration that proclaimed her native heritage and the male…
“John!” Jack grinned. “You shaved it off. Do you want congratulations, Sandy, or condolences?”
Sandy grinned. “I’ll take both. Sorry, Mama Morrison. He’s mine now.”
Gabriel lifted Jason off Martha’s back and she shifted as well, handing the chains to Jack before hugging her other son and his mate.
“Well,” she said, flushed and beaming, “let’s not stand around talking. I want to see what my daughter has done to the house in my absence.”
“I think you’ll be pleased,” John said, gesturing for little Jason and cuddling his nephew.
Jade mewled at Sandy, who picked her up to coo and cuddle, while Jesse whined at his dad until he was again on his favorite perch.
“You’re getting too big for that, boy,” Jack told him sternly.
Jesse chirped happily, making everyone else laugh.
As they approached the Morrison house, Jane flew down the steps to embrace her mother, then her brother and brother-in-law, and then steal her nephew from John and cuddle him.
“He’s adorable,” she cooed. “Can I keep him?”
“Fat chance,” Gabriel teased. “I know my offspring are perfect in every way, but you’re just going to have to make your own.”
Jane laughed and waved them inside. “Planning on it.”
“Who’s the poor sap?” Jack joked.
“Randall Blackfoot,” purred Jane. “We had some…discussions…the last few weeks.”
While her sons choked, Martha smirked. “I assume you came out on top.”
Jane blushed.
Inside, the cubs squirmed to be set down so they could explore, and the adults who had been holding them kept a tight grip on the chains. The house was spotless, and something delicious was simmering in the kitchen.
“You’re staying for lunch,” Jane told Jack firmly. “Pa should be back soon.”
Martha hugged her daughter. “Sounds like you’ve done very well in the last couple of months.”
Jane ducked her head briefly before shaking her hair back. “Not my fault you’re such an amazing mother that I felt like I couldn’t possibly live up to your example until you were gone and I had to step up.”
“I had full confidence in you. So. Randall Blackfoot. Does your father know?”
“Knows and approves.”
“Good, good. I’m proud of you.”
Jane clapped her hands together. “Alright. Enough about us; tell me about your cubs!”
“My oldest, Jason,” Jack said, scooping the cub up and kissing his head. “You’ve met him.”
“Handsome charmer like his dad,” Gabriel said with a kiss for Jack.
Jack set Jason back down and reeled his other son in. “Jesse, the middle cub. Can’t wait to see what he looks like when he shifts.”
Jane hummed and kissed Jesse’s head. “He’s exotic, that’s for sure. Look at those spots!”
“Gets them from his papi,” Jack said with a kiss for Gabriel, trading cubs. “And this little shadow is Jade, our youngest. Your niece.”
“She’s daddy’s little girl,” Jane exclaimed gleefully.
Jack laughed. “Close. I’m dad; Gabe is papi.”
“I wondered,” John confessed, “but I didn’t want to be rude and ask.”
Heavy footsteps on the stairs brought everyone’s attention to the door. While the rest were distracted, Martha leaned down and unclipped the chain from Jason’s harness.
The door opened; Jeremiah stood in the frame, imposingly silhouetted, and growled, “Where’s my grandcubs?”
Jason went tearing towards this new arrival, and Jeremiah knelt to accept the cub flinging himself at him. Laughing and kissing the cub’s golden feathers, he stood up.
“I like this one,” he said cheerfully. “Which one am I holding?”
“Your eldest, Pa,” Jack said. “His name’s Jason.”
“Good name.” Jeremiah crossed the room to sit on the couch with John and Sandy. “And the one that takes after your mate?”
“Our daughter Jade, the youngest.” Gabriel held up the squirming cub he had in his lap. “Jesse, our younger son.”
“Look at that coloration, Martha! Oh, he’d be one heck of a hunter.” Expertly, Jeremiah applied scritches to Jason and had him melted into a puddle on his lap. “Offer’s still open,” he said with a teasing grin for his son and son-in-law.
“I remember,” Jack said firmly, “but they can’t even shift yet. I don’t want any of my children growing up thinking we didn’t love them because we sent them away.”
Jeremiah looked at his other children and Sandy. “You see that?” he said challengingly. “That’s what a pride leader looks like.”
Jack blushed.
===
Almost three years later
===
The UN hadn’t liked their Strike-Commander adopting three young children with his secret husband, but it was too much good publicity for them to do anything about it. Jason was his father in miniature; Jade was the essence of her papi distilled into a little girl. Jesse looked every bit of his mixed blood, with Jack’s charm and Gabriel’s confidence. Although they were almost four, they looked and acted twice that. Their private tutor (a centaur, but the UN didn’t need to know that part) delighted in how quickly they learned, and they were all fast friends with Fareeha.
Although the UN also didn’t like both their commanders being gone at the same time, Jack brought his little family back home for a week twice a year, Christmas and midsummer, as well as a weekend in spring for Easter and in autumn for Halloween. All three children enjoyed seeing their family, but Jade wasn’t a fan of the outdoors except for Halloween, when she insisted on being called Sombra. Jesse wasn’t very comfortable with the cultural formalities of the pride, and could barely be dragged indoors for meals much less anything else. Jeremiah didn’t seem to take offense to that; after all, gryphons tended to produce more males than females specifically to account for the ones that went wandering and might not make it back, and Jesse was clearly a wanderer. But Jason…
Jason was never happier than when he was with the pride, playing with his younger cousins Jeffrey and Jennifer, and every time they packed up to go back to Zurich, he begged and pleaded to be allowed to stay. Jack and Gabriel had discussed it privately with Martha and Jeremiah, Jane and Randall, and as they prepared to pack the kids up and go to the Morrison home for Christmas, they did a little extra packing as well. The kids didn’t notice the extra bags, or at least, none of them said anything.
The flight was uneventful. Granny Whitecap was thrilled to see them all, demanding hugs and kisses from each one before they shifted and then preening them briefly. Jack and Gabriel got the kids’ bags settled on their harnesses before loading each other up, and then the family trotted through ankle-deep snow up the trail and into the valley. Although they were greeted from many houses, Steven hadn’t dared approach them since his public humiliation that first summer. Jane greeted them at the door, unbuckling harnesses so the kids could shift to human and greet Grandma Martha and Grandpa Jeremiah. She exchanged a secret smile with Jack and Gabriel as they let her know they’d take the bags up to the rooms.
Once everyone was settled with cider or mulled wine and shortbread or jerky, Jeremiah looked around at his family. Jack and Gabriel were cuddled together on one oversized chair, with Jane and Randall on a couch and Martha and Jeremiah on the other couch. The kids were sitting in a circle catching up quietly. The tree in the corner was decorated, although no presents were beneath it. The adults would sneak down to add those after the kids went to bed on Christmas Eve.
“What do you want Santa to bring you?” Jennifer asked Jason.
Six adults held their breath.
“I just want to be able to stay here,” Jason sighed. “I dunno. A pocketknife, I guess.”
Six relieved smiles flashed over the heads of the children.
=
“Presents!”
It was impossible to tell which child had voiced that joyful cry, but it didn’t matter. Moments later, all five children were babbling excitedly. Upstairs in Jack’s old room, Gabriel nuzzled his mate’s neck.
“What do you think, should we go down?”
Jack grinned. “I’ll go down on you.”
Gabriel grinned back. “Well, if you insist.”
“Mmm.” Jack kissed him lightly. “I do indeed.”
Before Gabriel could formulate a response, Jack disappeared beneath the covers and Gabriel felt hands on his pajamas, unbuttoning his fly and stroking him to groaning erection. Not being able to see what Jack was doing to him was maddening. There were fingers, there was a tongue, there was sweet Jesus he was in Jack’s throat! Gabriel stuffed his flannel-clad forearm into his mouth to muffle the sounds he was making as Jack sucked and swallowed like was going to hoover the jizz right out of Gabriel’s balls. Then he started humming, Jesus Christ and Gabriel was done, his eyes rolled back as he shot his load and felt his mate lick him clean and tuck him away. When he could think again, he turned his head to see Jack smirking at him from the other pillow.
“Jesus fuck, Jack, what the hell was that? Not that I’m complaining.”
“Merry Christmas,” Jack chirped brightly. Then he laughed as Gabriel rolled over and buried his face in Jack’s shoulder. “Every so often,” he murmured, stroking his mate’s hair, “the alpha in me wants to sexually dominate you. But I don’t want to be sexually dominant. So I do that.”
“Mmmm. God damn I love that you’re an alpha. Do you want me to return the favor?”
Jack kissed his head. “No need, Corazon. Let’s go downstairs and make our son’s entire year.”
Gabriel raised his head for a proper kiss. “Mmm. Whatever you say, mi sol.”
Jeremiah and Martha were already awake when Jack and Gabriel came downstairs, Martha making breakfast with the help of the children and Jeremiah sitting in his favorite chair with a mug of tea. Jane and Randall came down a couple of minutes later, only to be swarmed by their children bringing them tea and toast and eggs with ham on the side. Jesse and Jade delivered breakfast and tea to their parents while Jason brought a plate to his grandfather, and then they swarmed back to sit around the coffee table with plates of their own while Martha sat in her favorite chair to eat.
The kids were done with breakfast long before the adults were, and Jeremiah okayed them attacking the presents. It was cheerful chaos until Jason tore open a large box only to discover-
“These are my clothes! What gives?”
Martha fought a smile off her face. “Your clothes, sweetie?”
“Yeah.” He scowled at them. “From my room back home. Why would Santa give me something I already have?”
“Did he leave a note?” Martha asked innocently.
Jason looked at the discarded lid and unfolded the note taped to the underside. “Dear Jason. Your daddy and papi talked with your aunt and uncle and grandparents, and they all said you didn’t have to go back this time, so I thought I’d bring you the rest of your clothes, because you’re going to need them!” Wide-eyed, he lowered the note to stare at his parents. “Dad! Papi! You mean it? I get to stay?”
“You get to stay,” Jack confirmed. “We all talked it over. We want you to be happy.”
“I get to stay,” he whispered in awe, caressing the note. “I don’t have to leave. I get to stay.”
Suddenly, he got up and flung himself, crying, at his grandmother. No sooner had she hugged him, however, than he pulled out of her grip and hurled himself at Jeremiah for another hug. Then he hugged Jane and Randall, and finally climbed onto the couch between his parents to get hugged from both sides.
“You still have to be good and behave,” Gabriel told him gently. “Obey your aunt and uncle and grandma and grandpa the way you would obey us. Do your schoolwork, do your chores, everything. And if you ever change your mind, the next time we visit, we’ll bring you back with us.”
“I’m gonna miss you, Papi,” Jason sniffled while his brother and sister climbed into their parents’ laps. “And I’m gonna miss you, too, Dad. And I’m gonna miss you, Jesse and Jade. But I love it here. I belong here.”
Jack kissed his son’s head. “We know, honey. We’ll miss you, too. But you’re going to do great things for the pride, and we know better than to get in the way of destiny.” He turned to Jesse, sitting on his knee. “And what did Santa bring you?”
Jesse beamed. “I got a cowboy hat and a bandana and a nerf gun with a gunbelt and holster!” he announced, already wearing all of it.
“And I got my own tablet reader!” Jade announced proudly. “It’s got a whole library on it, and I’m gonna learn Spanish so I can talk to Papi and no one else will know what we’re saying!”
Gabriel chuckled. “Hate to break it to you, mi sombra, but your dad knows more Spanish than he lets on.”
Head tilted, she looked up at him. “Why did you tell me that? Before he overheard something I didn’t want him to?”
“Didn’t want you to get tricked the way I got tricked,” he answered, kissing her nose.
“You won’t trick me, Dad! I’m gonna be trickier!”
Jack laughed. “You go right ahead, sweetie.”
Clapping her hands, Jane stood up. “Alright, kids, time to clean up before you can go play with your new toys.”
All five climbed down or jumped up and ran around the room, cheering as they collected plates and silverware and darted into the kitchen while the adults chuckled at their enthusiasm.
Martha leaned forward. “Jackie? Care to share the story?”
A deep blush climbed Jack’s cheeks to the tips of his ears, and Gabriel laughed. “I was trying to be romantic and whisper sweet nothings in his ear. So I tell him te amo, which means I love you, and this gorgeous, amazing, sassy little troll looks up at me with a shit-eating grin and says, I know. And then he calls me sweetheart. In Spanish.”
While still blushing, Jack managed to look both smug and unrepentant. “It got your attention, didn’t it?”
“You didn’t need to get my attention,” Gabriel complained with false petulance. “We’d already said it, just not…”
Jack leaned in to nibble his ear. “Remember what you did after I said it, though?”
Gabriel blushed.
“I want you to do it again tonight, after the kids are in bed,” Jack whispered.
“Ohhhh, mi sol, te amo.”
He turned to capture Jack’s lips, and it was a long minute before the kiss ended. For a moment, Jack’s expression was the heavy-lidded yearning that Gabriel loved. Then he smiled, the brilliant one that had first earned him his pet names.
“Te amo, Corazon.”
“Jaaaaack, stop being so perfect.”
Jack laid his head on his mate’s shoulder and smiled contentedly. “No.”
“I blame you,” Gabriel told Martha sternly.
The matronly gryphon smiled, proving Jack had inherited it from her. “You’re welcome.”
Randall, who rarely spoke even when the whole family wasn’t gathered, met Gabriel’s eye and gave him a knowing smile. “And that’s why I’m mated to Jane.”
Gabriel threw his head back and laughed.