Feral

Chapter 31

It felt weird being out of their room.

It wasn't like they had spent months or even weeks in there, but Adrian realized that ever since they've been given their room only a few days ago, they hadn't even left it.

Not that Adrian complained in the slightest. But when he stepped out into the open air and felt the breeze ruffle over his skin, he felt himself take a deep breath, a sense of relief flitting through his senses.

His instincts might be demanding him to rut and mate with his chosen mates... but his shift wasn't meant to be cooped up inside a den for the entire day.

Levi chuckled, pressing a kiss against his temple before intertwining their fingers. "We really need to come out more often if that's how you respond to our first outing." The elephant chuckled.

"It almost looked like you've finally tasted freedom after being held captive." He added, raising their intertwined hands to brush a finger over Adrian's cheek. "And it's certainly not our intention to make you feel trapped."

The young raptor hummed at that, momentarily leaning into the touch before following Levi towards the other side of the compound.

The slight ache in his lower back wasn't too bad, but it reminded Adrian that they were all fully mated. Levi seemed to catch his own contentment, or perhaps the elephant was distracted with the smile that kept creeping on Adrian's lips.

He couldn't help it either. This giddy sensation in his body that made him want to sprint, to feel the breeze in his hair, to run alongside Levi.

Adrian noticed he was pulling Levi along but didn't care. In fact, the man chuckled and squeezed their joint hands before falling in step with Adrian.

"Do you even know where Darius is, darling?" Levi teased, making Adrian falter for only a brief moment before he shrugged.

He may not know the exact location, but he wasn't a raptor for nothing. Tilting his face towards the breeze, he inhaled deeply before smirking and nodded in the direction of Darius' scent.

Adrian quickly realized that Levi had already been heading in the general direction of Darius' scent and chuckled. "How good can you smell him?" The raptor teased, causing a wide smirk to slip over Levi's lips.

He tapped against the side of his nose and winked. "Darling, if I focus, I can smell water from 12 miles away. I could smell Darius while we were still in our room." The spark in his eye was nothing to the little pep in his step as Adrian's mouth dropped open before he hurriedly followed after his mate.

The young raptor had learned about other species as much as possible, but it was still slightly jarring to realize that a herbivore was up to par with his own skills.

Just the realization that his mate was powerful made Adrian release an unintentional chirp that made Levi's nostrils flare before he hummed softly. Pride and contentment flowing gently off the elephant, making Adrian's heart skip a beat before it raced quicker than before.

"Easy now. We're outside to take a nice stroll, relax and find Darius. Not to tempt one another with a quick rut against the nearest tree." Levi teased, though his scent and expression showed he wasn't against the idea one bit.

Neither was Adrian but he knew just as well that they should be taking some time off of mating. Plus, while Darius had mentioned it was perfectly normal in poly matings that some individuals would mate more than others, he didn't want to cause any strife by making Darius feel left out.

"Perhaps those suppressants would work, now that we've officially mated." Adrian thought out loud, making Levi chuckle before he pressed a kiss against Adrian's temple. Fingers gently squeezing his nape before reaching up to ruffle through the young raptor's hair.