Disclaimer: I don't own "Black Panther" or any of its characters, wishful thinking aside.
Authors Note #1: This is a T'Challa x Ross fic. It's been rattling around in my drafts for months so I figured I would dust it off and get it out there.
Warnings: alpha/beta/omega dynamics, alpha/omega, transformation, omega!t'challa, alpha!ross, slow burn, friends to lovers, mild language, canon appropriate violence, drama, mild flirting, romance, angst, references to knotting, mild sexual content. - This chapter told in T'Challa's pov.
The Ademan
Chapter Four
"I knew you'd be mine..."
The calm hadn't lasted.
Nor had he expected it to.
He'd wanted to be sure. Certain Everett's consent needed to be voiced. Unwilling to let him give into instinct before he understood what was happening. But it wasn't as self-sacrificing as it appeared. It was selfish too. He didn't want there to be any doubt after this. He wanted to emerge from his Alpha's rut and find his scent content. Settled. Not conflicted or confused by the new reality he'd chosen.
Heart to body, body to heart – both sides needed equality to be harmonious.
"I want it- I want you. I can't think, I-I don't really understand any of this, but I know its right. You. Me. Us. It makes sense now."
It was that affirmation that spurred the rest. That made it okay to give into the pull that was alive in his blood. Wanting to be closer. Wanting to live inside his Alpha's skin and memorize his heartbeat. Mind completely at ease as he teased his tongue down Everett's shaft. Learning what his mate liked. What it meant to know him this way. The only one who would be allowed to have him like this from this day forward.
The thought was possessive, and for good reason.
He'd been waiting for this his entire life.
For the restlessness in his heart to settle.
To find his mate.
To be bonded.
Everett's fists clenched at his sides. Obviously trying stop himself from reaching for him as his tongue flicked down his perineum. Eyes dark and blown as he looked through his lashes at him, catching the hitch in his Alpha's breathing.
"Mine," Everett breathed, hips hiccupping. Gone enough that he reached down and traced the outline through his cheek when he took him deeper. Bobbing gently. Scraping teeth down the swelling bulge of his knot as the Alpha's head tipped back – showing his throat. "Fuck- T'Challa...just- fuck!"
Indeed.
He pulled back reluctantly, knowing Everett wouldn't have the control to hold back. Still, that didn't stop him from thumbing the swelling as he did so. Eyes sparkling with an open challenge when the Alpha groaned, eyes fixed on where his fingers were teasing. Making the bump obvious - stained a deep red and purple - alluring enough that it encouraged a gush of slick to trickle down the inside of his thighs.
Everett's nostrils flared, catching the scent.
Gods.
He surrendered willingly when Everett surged forward. Burying his nose into his neck and breathing deeply. Rumbling into him as his mate ground their hips together. Mindless of the hard stones digging into their knees. Everett didn't seem to notice they'd sank to the floor at all. Beyond simple things like discomfort as he growled, pressing their foreheads together like an overture. In fact, he was forced to stiffen his spine when the Alpha crowded closer. Rut rising thick in the air as Ross' hands seemed everywhere at once. Coaxing his chin to the side so he could scent him. Pushing and pulling with a restlessness that was past desperate and instead translated into something so sweetly painful it-
He laughed into the next kiss when Everett finally got fed up with not getting his way and took him down to the floor with an uneven huff. Feeling the graze of teeth against his lips, then down his chin as his Alpha snarled a gravely note, cock hard and leaking against his trouser leg.
Somehow, it was perfect.
They were still sprawled on the floor, Everett's shoulders working with subtle, delineated muscles, when his Alpha finally pushed inside him. Filling the air with humid gasps and stuttered moans as instinct drove them forward.
There would be time later to learn each other.
But not now.
This was the time of fever and need. Heat and rut.
Later, yes- later there would be time.
If the world continued turning beyond their door, they had no interest in its proceedings. The sharp of kisses and slap of eager flesh was the only politics he cared about now. Wearing his mate's bite proudly after Everett sank his teeth into his bonding gland the first time they tied. Flattening him to the stones with an agonized sound. Confused, but finally whole as his Alpha's release threatened to leak around his knot and shame them both.
They would laugh about it later. But the truth was, it was a moment that never failed to send them back to their rooms. Feverishly tugging off clothes to get to skin. Reconnecting with each other like it was the first time. The shades of the ritual hanging rich in the shadows of their memory.
When it came to Everett, he was shameless and could never get enough. A sentiment the man seemed to share if his reciprocation was any judge. They had the broken furniture and discretely renovated walls to prove it.
Shuri was naturally ruthless in her teasing.
The rest seemed to practice selective hearing.
He supposed it was a perk of being King.
It was days later by the time he sensed the rut starting to subside. Giving him the opportunity to watch Everett sleep, exhausted and ruddy. Chest rising and falling as their scents circulated thick in the humid air of their nest.
They were both exhausted, but Everett was worse off. Body still coping with the changes. The hollows under his eyes were pronounced, the quaver in his limbs on the last day even more so. He knew Shuri was monitoring them from afar, so his concern was mostly superficial. But the enormity of what Everett had gone through was naggingly present.
He paused, allowing himself to own the whole truth for the first time.
For him.
Everett had done this for him.
He sighed, accepting the soft serendipity of it as he combed silvering hair off his forehead. Knowing that whatever Everett had said or done on behalf of Wakanda had been for him from the start. Even when his true nature had been hidden from him, even when he hadn't known exactly where they stood with one another or why, Everett had always been fighting for him.
After all, it was in his nature.
He smiled into the dark, pressing a kiss into his Alpha's hair.
He could only hope to be equal to that devotion one day.
With the gods as his witness, he would certainly try.
A/N: Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think. – This story is now complete.