The Beta and His Angel (The Belesone Pack #3)

Chapter 29

Leo and Angel stayed the night in the cave behind the waterfall. It was warm and comfortable and they didn't need anything other than their own bodies to create heat between them. Their passion easily enhanced that heat as they spent the night enjoying their time with each other.

As soon as morning came and they woke, they took off, as wolves, for the cabin that Leo was renting. They talked casually with each other in their heads as they traveled back to the cabin. They reached their sanctuary before noon and then quickly dressed and fed hungrily. All they had eaten during the night, were two scrawny rabbits their wolves had caught and devoured. They enjoyed a lazy hour, eating and Leo led Angel through the house and finally into the bathroom adjoining the one bedroom. Together they took a long, hot bath, giving their bodies the first intense clean they had the chance for, since escaping. Angel hadn't been so clean in years.

He enjoyed the experience so much that over the following four weeks, if Angel disappeared from sight, Leo was sure to find him in the bath. He basked in the luxury of bathing, running free as his wolf in the surrounding forest and eating whenever he felt like it. His hunger had never bated during his captivity, but he had learned to ignored it, knowing that what he would be fed wasn't what his body required. As soon as he was safe with Leo, he ate eagerly three times every day.

Leo was relieved to find that his mate was piling on, in a contained manner, a very healthy amount of weight within those four weeks. His thin frame was filling out in all the right places. His sallow cheeks became less hollow.

At his insistence, to be less like his captive self as possible, Leo agreed to cut his hair. A quick trip into town, much to Angel's joy, supplied them with the tools and supplies they needed to survive the four weeks comfortably. Which included cutting his lover's hair from a shaggy shoulder length to a short, tidy cut with just a little length left for Leo to run his fingers through.

The not so pleasant effects that lingered with him, were the nightmares. No matter how tightly Leo held him as they fell asleep, no matter what they talked about or did before falling into their dreams, he always seemed to end up with nightmares.

Leo would wake with him, holding him and telling him that everything was all right. Each and every night he ran his hand over his hair, gently rocking him as he told him of their life together.

Leo reminded him that he was free, that he was safe, loved and with his mate, who would never hurt him. He told him of their love, of their friendship, of those who waited at home to see him. Sometimes, in those rare nights when that didn't work, Leo would bypass talking and seduce him with passion that usually flared instantly. It seemed to be one of the few things outside his mate's voice that could calm him down after a nightmare. Last night had been one such night.

"Leo? Little lion, where are you?" Angel asked.

"I'm here," Leo called back, beaming to himself in glee. He loved hearing Angel talking out loud, even if his words were hesitant and husky. His voice had been abandoned for so long that he had feared he would never talk again.

With very little argument, Angel spent hours a day learning to speak again. They began with the easy letters and words, adding sounds eventually. Now he could say sentences, but his voice still ached and cracked from continual lack of use over the last five years.

Leo walked back into the bedroom with a smile, carrying a tray with a fully prepared breakfast for them both. He lay it down on the bed, caught his naked lover with a lingering, passionate kiss and savored the moment. From the looks of it, he'd been having another bath; something he was inordinately fond of.

Angel caught his hips and tried to encourage him back into bed with a delightful grinding of their groins and playful, wandering fingers.

Leo very reluctantly pulled away. "You have to eat. We're going out," he revealed, to Angel's surprise.

"To town?" he asked. So far, other than roaming as his wolf and venturing safely through the forest with his true mate, he didn't leave the cabin.

"No. We're going to visit Alpha Bryson. I thought he would appreciate knowing you are well. Alpha Murphy is visiting him and they have requested our presence at Alpha Bryson's camp," Leo explained the extent of their journey that day. They had been invited to visit the camp, but he also thought it was a good idea.

Now that Angel was safe and knew it, he could reassure the two Alpha's that their plan had gone off successfully. And they could reassure his mate that all of his captors were dead and gone, never to harm him again. At the same time, Leo thought it was an ideal opportunity for his true mate to mingle with shifters again, other than his own mate.

"Is it bad?" Angel asked, hesitant to agree until he knew.

"I don't think so. I think it could be very good. He says he has a surprise for us," Leo wrapped his arms around his waist and moved closer. "But, there will be a crowd of shifters we have to pass through. I know you haven't been in crowds, except in town, when you are with me, but this will be no different. You are still safe, you are still with me and this time, you will be amongst people who love you,"

"I suppose if I can survive the humans, then I can survive a few shifters," Angel agreed grudgingly, glancing down at the fully loaded breakfast tray. There was a cooked breakfast of sausages, eggs, bacon and toast, as well as fresh coffee and a roll on a separate plate.

"I promise, no gawkers just out to see the last remaining Dubrinsky," Leo smiled as he made his vow, placing a delicate, loving kiss on his mate's lips before moving away. He climbed onto the bed and sat down, cross legged and picked up the roll, slipping two slices of bacon into it.

Angel rolled his eyes and joined his mate to eat a hearty breakfast. Soon he would have to find out just what sort of situations he could put up with. No one envied him or wanted to hurt him. His people had learned to appreciate him after his disappearance and held a strange kind of dutiful love for him. His Dubrinsky blood would, for once, protect him.