Chapter 13: The next phase in life

Lucy POV

Tonight is the last night before we reach Waas Forest. The mission officially starts tomorrow. We'll be splitting up into two teams to search for the gemstone. Laxus and Gajeel are team one, Erik and I will be team two. We have decided to stay near each other, so if something were to go wrong, the dragon slayers could pick up on the noise and intervene. Furthermore, we will be checking in through lacrima frequently, just for small updates.

So far, Gajeel and Laxus have been sneaking off every night. Although we all know what they've been doing, they act all innocent. Erik claims it's simply because Laxus doesn't want his little sister to know how often he's banging her best friend. In their defence, I get it. I don't need them invested in my love life either. That's something strictly between me and Erik.

"They know, Bright Eyes. They're dragon slayers, they smell it on both of us." As Erik says this, I can feel my eyes widen. 'Erik, don't fuck with me. Are you serious?!' He simply nods. Ah shit. He simply chuckles and wraps his arm around my shoulder. He leans in closer and whispers "You know I'd never fuck with you, I'd rather just fuck you." I gasp and cover my face with both my hands. Damn him.

Across from us I can hear Laxus groaning. "Please don't say such things to my sister while I'm around. Because I will punch you."
"So let me get this straight. It's okay for you to fuck his brains out every night, while the entire forest can hear you, but I can't even say this to my mate?" Erik raises his middle finger at my brother and I facepalm. In the background I can hear Gajeel burst out laughing.
"Come on, Sparky. Leave them be. We're definitely far worse than they are." Gajeel lays down on his back, his arms resting beneath his head.

Back in the day when it was just me and Gajeel, we would often lay like that, side by side, just looking up at the stars. When the mate bonds have settled, I think I'll go on a mission with just Gajeel. Just like the old days. As if on cue, Gajeel turns his head towards me and smiles. Not much later, all of us return to our tents and call it a night.

Time skip: the next morning

The next morning at dawn, I'm awoken by the sound of chirping birds, while the tent is slowly lighting up. I can feel Erik moving beside me, leaning in closer. He knows I'm awake. "Good morning, Bright Eyes."
"Good morning, Sweetie." I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him in for a kiss. He smiles and happily accepts my kiss, moving his lips against mine in a soft and passionate way. His hands slide down my arms and towards my tummy, before dipping beneath my tank top. Slowly but surely his hands travel up, until they rest on my ribs, his thumbs touching the bottom of my breasts ever so lightly. His hands tighten around my ribs and he rolls us over and I take the opportunity to straddle his hips. He sits up straight and licks at my bottom lip, gently asking for permission, which I happily grant him.

His hands move towards my back and he holds me even closer against his body as our tongues dance around each other. We both pull back to catch our breath and he strokes my cheek gently before leaning down to kiss the side of my neck. I sigh contently when he reaches the sweet spot of our mating mark and I unconsciously rub my hips against his. His hands travel towards my shoulders and gently slide down both of the straps of my top. I can hear him growling softly as he reveals my breasts, the cool air quickly hardening my nipples.

He gives me one last lick over the mark before kissing his way down to my collar bone, and further down to my breasts. A gasp escapes my lips as he cups one breast with his hand, while his mouth descends upon the other. I once again rub my hips against his, harder this time, and I can hear him growling against my chest. I angle my hips a little differently and this time I can feel his cock sliding right between my lower lips. This causes him to softly bite down on my nipple, which makes me whimper.

Erik looks up to me with lust-filled eyes and all I can do is lick my lips at the sight of him. He growls again and within seconds he has taken off both of our underwear. I position myself above his member, but Erik signals me to wait for a moment. I look at him questioningly, before my head rolls back as he enters two fingers into my core. He pumps his fingers in a few times before pulling them back and putting them in his mouth. "I wanted to have a little taste first."

I swallow hard, not really paying attention to what happens next. Erik takes hold of my hips and lowers me onto his member. I moan loudly at the intrusion before clamping my hand over my mouth as realisation hits me. Erik simply chuckles and pulls my hand down. I start moving my hips in sync with his and before long we're both panting hard. Our movements become erratic and I feel myself tumbling over the edge as my orgasm hit me. I don't know why I did what I did, but as my orgasm hit me, I bit Erik in the shoulder.

"Gods, L-Lucy…" He groans out my name as he thrusts his hips up one final time, burying himself deep within me, as his orgasm hits him as well. I can feel him releasing deep inside me as I pull back from his shoulder and kiss him hard on the lips. 'Gods, this man is amazing.'

We stay like this for a bit longer, with Erik stroking my back soothingly. Slowly but surely, we both come down from our high and get dressed for the day. "I'm sorry for biting you, I don't know what came over me."
Erik laughs softly. "That's completely okay, I'm just glad this happened after I marked you. At least now you're immune to my poisonous blood." Erik opens up the tent and we're immediately greeted by Gajeel, eating his breakfast while looking quite uncomfortable. Poor guy. I can feel my face heat up in embarrassment as I exit the tent and run off to the pond to freshen up.

I quickly brush my teeth and wash my face. Just when I'm cleaning up my stuff, I can hear footstep closing in and I turn around to see my mate walking towards me. He wraps his arms around me from behind and nuzzles into the mate mark in my neck. A soft sigh escapes my lips as I lean my head against his. "I can't get enough of you, Bright Eyes." He kisses the mark before biting down on it softly, while cupping my breasts through my shirt. Immediately I feel heat pooling between my legs. Erik seems to notice this as well, because one of his hands quickly slide down my tummy and into the front of my shorts, smoothly cupping my sex before entering two fingers. I moan against his ear and push my hips backwards against his crotch. "Damnit, Lucy." Erik curls his fingers inside me before pulling his hand away and turning me around to face him.

"Yes, Erik?" I play innocent, fully knowing what it is he wanted. He simply growled at me before kissing me hard. I can feel him unbuttoning my shorts and I push them down my legs, along with my panties. Next, I start unbuttoning his pants and push them down a bit, along with his boxers. I wrap my arms around his neck and he picks me up with ease. I roll my hips forward, pressing my folds against his cock and his groans. Swiftly, he lifts me up further, hooking his elbows underneath my knees for an even better angle, and his cock slides into me with ease. I moan loudly and I can feel myself almost coming undone, just from him entering me.

I smash my lips unto his, kissing him hard as he starts thrusting upwards into me. But I have to pull back from the kiss quickly because every thrust makes me cry out in pleasure. "Oh gods! Yes, Erik… right there." I can feel the tension building up in my tummy before my orgasm hits like a ton of bricks. Only seconds after, I can feel Erik releasing inside of me. Slowly, he sets me back down on the ground. I look up into his eyes and kiss him softly in the lips.

We both get dressed and head back to camp. My brother and Gajeel were already done packing and just sat there, waiting for us to return. "Well now that you two are finally back, we can head out and start our mission." Laxus says to us while sighing. Virgo appears to put all of our stuff back in the spirit world and we head off to Waas Forest.

It was only a small hour of hiking before we reached the edge of the forest. But during that hike, I constantly felt this uncontrollable itch. Does it have to do with me biting Erik this morning? He looks uncomfortable as well and he constantly looks at me as if he's going to ravage me. Don't get me wrong, I want him to, every second of the day. But we have a mission to complete now, we can't get distracted.

Gajeel POV

The mission has officially started, we have split up into two teams and we both went our ways. I noticed how both Lucy and Erik were acting uncomfortable throughout the hike. Was it because I overheard them this morning? Laxus was walking beside me, intensely listening to the forest around us, ready to attack if necessary.

"Damn the gods, they're at it again. Fucking like damn jackrabbits."
I look at him in shock, I did not expect this. "I'm calling Levy at the guild, something is up with those two." Laxus simply nods at me. We sit down on a fallen tree trunk and I take my lacrima out of my backpack. Infusing some of my magic into it, I called out to Levy. She was shocked to see me.

"Gajeel, is everything okay?"
"Um, yeah I think so. I need a favour, though. Do you think you can do some research on dragon mating. Specifically what happens when both mates have bitten each other."
"Give me one second, I just finished reading up on dragon slayers and mating, because of Lucy and you guys. I think I saw this mentioned in the book." It's quiet for a few moments as I see her scrolling through the book. "Ah yes, here it is. So apparently when the female bites her mate and consumes his blood, both mates become sexually active. Basically they can go at it night and day. This is actually happening because they are fully bonded now, meaning they are moving on to the next step in their shared life."

Laxus looks at levy confused. "Meaning what exactly? What is the next step in their shared life?"
"A family. They want to start a family." I turn my head towards Laxus and see the shock in his eyes.
"Thanks, Levy. That'll be all for now." She nods her head and I pull my magic from the lacrima. Laxus is still sitting next to me in complete silence. "Are you okay, Sparky?"

He nods his head slowly. "This just wasn't what I expected. We should tell them what's going on, they need to know."
I nod in agreement. Now we just have to wait for a moment to meet with them. Maybe I should just talk to her alone, that might be easier.

At noon, we meet up for lunch. All of us are sitting in a circle, eating in silence. Lucy knows something is up, she keeps looking at me and Laxus expectantly. Eventually, she signals at me to follow her, and I do.

"Talk to me Gajeel. What's bothering you?"
"Well I talked to Levy this morning. I overheard you telling Erik you bit him and afterwards both of you looked uncomfortable as hell."
She simply shrugs but nods afterwards. "Yeah, I did happen to bite Erik, I still don't know why I did it, it just happened. And since then I've had this insatiable feeling inside of me."
"So apparently this is another mating process. You biting him triggered your next phase."
"What's my next phase, Gajeel?" She looks at me with wide eyes. I can tell she already knows what's coming next.

"The next phase is you getting pregnant, Lucy."