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Dean knew this was his fault. That this was something he had to deal with on his own.
He was the one who snuck out of his dorm hours after curfew and headed to a bar he knew didn’t card if you looked at the bouncers the right way. As long as he smelled fresh and unmated and pouted a bit, he knew he’d get in, underage or not. Omegas were good for business. And he’d known when he let the blue-eyed stranger buy him a drink that he was an alpha, but for some reason, he just hadn’t cared. Instead of going home with a beta or another omega to work off his end-of-heat-funk like he’d originally intended, it had been 6ft of gorgeous alpha that he’d followed out the door.
Dean was always extra antsy for a few days right after his heat, but this particular guy, it was like he’d been made to drive him wild. Not only was he hot as hell, he’d just smelled so good. Dean lost all common sense. All he’d wanted was to get closer, to rub up against him until that delicious scent sunk into his skin. It was like raw pine mixed with something spicy and everything about him, from his dark tousled hair to his soft soft lips, had Dean’s inner omega whining like he was still in heat. He’d taken a few sips of the beer the guy bought him, and then crowded into his space and kissed him.
If he’d been thinking straight, he would have been embarrassed. As it was he hadn’t given a single thought to his dignity. He’d felt so horny and down-right slutty that he’d actually taken extra pleasure in how undignified it all was. An unmated omega sneaking out to go looking for a stranger’s knot – it was like something from a cheap porno, behavior Dean would never dream of indulging in, that would have his parents gasping in horror.
That hadn’t stopped Dean rubbing up against the alpha and licking into his mouth though. He’d growled against Dean’s lips like a warning or a promise before he was kissing back, hard and messy. Dean remembered the bar digging into his back as he was pressed into it and hands pulling at his hair and his hips as his mouth was ruthlessly, wonderfully, claimed by the stranger. The alpha’s erection had been a hard line against his hip and his arousal had that spicy undertone of his scent blooming and thickening, strong enough to give Dean a headspin.
“Want you alpha,” he’d panted (or something equally clichéd), and that had been more or less it as far as conversation went.
They hadn’t even exchanged names.
When the bartender had interrupted their feverish rutting to shoo them out the door Dean might have honest to god whined.
The short walk to the alpha’s hotel had been torture. It was on the same block, just a few stumbling minutes, but Dean had been leaking through his jeans, slick and wet and open, long before they made it inside.
They’d gotten as far as the bed, but that was about the only concession to civility and comfort they’d made that night. They’d torn each other’s clothes off, kissing and licking and biting like a pair of wild things, and then the alpha had shoved Dean down and licked and suckled at the throbbing source of his slick like Dean was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted.
Dean had been so strung out and desperate he hadn’t even thought to mention that he’d never had an alpha before, not until his alpha had him on his belly and was fucking into furiously, splitting him open. But then he’d knotted him, and the feel of that, the deep hot stretch was so overwhelming and fucking perfect, that in his excitement Dean had maybe babbled a little, admitted he’d never knotted before amidst all the porno-levels of praise he directed at his alpha’s fucking magnificent cock.
The alpha had sworn, teeth scraping at Dean’s neck like he wanted to bite down and claim him, and then filled him up with come. And it had been amazing. Dean had suddenly understood all the hype about alphas, why the other omegas in his classes were all so obsessed. Why Rhonda Hurley had dumped him for Victor Henriksen the moment he’d popped a knot.
Alpha cock was a goddamn miracle.
His partner for the evening had seemed just as enamored of his ass and his slick as Dean was of his knot, and they’d fucked and tied maybe half a dozen times over the course of the night before passing out. It was just light out when Dean had awoken, almost dawn. He’d been a mess of come and slick and the stink of alpha and sex, but the last round had started in the shower, so he’d been able to pull on his clothes and leave without stopping for more than a cursory clean up in the bathroom.
The alpha was asleep, and Dean was tempted to wake him, could feel some bone deep instinct rebelling at running, but that was how this was supposed to go. They hadn’t even exchanged names before they’d fucked, and he hadn’t asked. Just fucked Dean desperately, happy to call him ‘omega’ and ‘sweet’ not ‘Dean’. It hadn’t been a date or a prelude to a mating or courtship. Just really great sex. The guy had clearly been just passing through Palo Alto – the only luggage in the room was a small carry-on suitcase, but Dean couldn’t help it, he’d wanted to see him again. So he’d stopped at the desk in the corner of the hotel room and scribbled down his mobile number and Dean on the pad of creamy hotel stationary. Then added a single x.
He’d taken one last look at the tanned limbs and messy hair sprawled out over the sheets, then left.
And sure, the alpha had never called, but Dean hadn’t really expected him to. That was why he hadn’t hung around for awkward breakfast conversation. He’d known what he was getting into. A one night stand. A scratch to soothe the itch his heat left him with that no toy could.
So this was on him.
Dean had gone out and found someone to hook up with. Dean had let an alpha fuck and knot his brains out, and now Dean was pregnant. A sophomore and pregnant. An unmated, underage omega, and pregnant.
His mom Ellen was sympathetic, but his dad was furious. It wasn’t that he’d slept with an alpha, it was that he hadn’t been careful that had Robert Smith so livid. His disappointment that Dean would be so careless, would throw away the opportunities he’d been given (Stanford tuition didn’t come cheap), had hurt more than his actual anger. Luckily for Dean it was more or less impossible for an alpha to stay mad at a pregnant omega, especially one of his own blood, so his father’s anger mellowed to a lot of scowling and sulking within a week of his coming home, and after a month had dissipated entirely.
Jo clearly pitied him more than anything else, but his little sister hadn’t made a big deal out of it, for which he was grateful. She kept her teasing and ‘I told you so’s to herself for a change.
At any rate, Dean was disappointed and angry enough at himself for everyone. He hoped to go back to school once the baby was born, and his mom said if he transferred to a local school she’d help with the baby so he could make it to his classes, but he wasn’t an idiot. He knew being an unmated omega with a kid was going to make his life a hell of a lot more difficult. People wouldn’t want to hire him, and of course, no alpha would want to mate him. He was used goods saddled with some other alpha’s leavings.
He found himself daydreaming of the blue-eyed alpha though. Of him finally calling, telling Dean something clichéd and romantic like how he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him, that he wanted to see him again. Of him coming and claiming Dean as his mate and everything working out as perfectly as a corny rom-com between them. It was ridiculous of course, the alpha had his number. He hadn’t called. If he’d wanted Dean, he would have. It was as simple as that.
And Dean couldn’t try and look him up - he didn’t even know his name, didn’t even have a place to start. He hadn’t been local. He could live on the other side of the country for all Dean knew.
It was an itch under his skin though. Dean’s omega wanted its alpha, its mate, and he found himself missing, pining, for a complete stranger. He knew it was idiotic, but he just couldn’t stop thinking about him. He’d lay awake in bed and imagine the warm shape of him tucked in tight against his back, or he’d press fingers into his slick hole and try and remember the thick blunt shape of him stretching him open. There were no heats for him since he was pregnant, but he ended up wet and aching all the time regardless. Spent nights muffling his cries into the pillows as he fucked himself on toys he usually only resorted to in the throes of heat. Came to the memory of the alpha filling him up, of the scrape of teeth on the back of his neck, that almost-claim he was half convinced he’d imagined.
It was easier during the day, when Dean was distracted. Much easier to be logical and reasonable and ignore that nagging twinge inside. He had no claim over the alpha, they weren’t mates. Dean would never see him again, and the sooner his stupid pregnant body figured that out, the better.
Eventually he adjusted, got over it. Even without his alpha.
His pregnancy was awful, constant morning sickness, back aches, swollen feet – just about every horribly symptom possible - but he managed. And as he swelled up big and uncomfortable, his libido finally calmed down again and he didn’t end up desperately fucking himself on silicone dicks every night.
His labor was long and hard, as they often were for unmated omegas, but the baby was healthy. A little boy. Dean fell in love instantaneously and his parents and Jo seemed almost as smitten. His mom helped him pick a name – Daniel – though they all instantly started calling him Danny. Apparently he looked a lot like Dean and Jo had as babies, pink and blonde. He had bright blue eyes that weren’t a Smith family trait though, and his scent, even sweet and baby fresh, was something fresh and woodsy. With Danny sleeping warm in his arms, Dean found that twinge of loneliness he’d been ignoring eased a little. His son didn’t smell like mate, but he smelled like home and family.
***
Dean stayed in San Francisco. He did a few subjects online just to keep his studies fresh in his mind, but being a dad was a full time job even with his parents helping him. But he knew he needed to find a good job so he’d be able to support his son – his parents were well-off but he didn’t want to sponge off them for the rest of his life - so even though it went against every instinct in his body, Dean enrolled in classes and went back to school. He didn’t move back south though, with Danny that just didn’t make any sense. The train ride down to Palo Alto took over an hour, but it was better than paying for parking.
College was different the second time around. Dean was only a year or so older than most of his peers, but it felt more like a decade. Everyone seemed so young. He didn’t make friends really, since he didn’t live on campus and kept to himself outside of classes, only really hanging out when he had group projects to work on and he avoided the parties. It was easier that way. He didn’t feel like he had much in common with anyone anyway.
With the distance he kept, no one knew he had a kid. They’d smell it on him, baby, but that was hardly unusual. Lots of people had younger brothers and sisters, and that’s what they assumed the sweet innocent scent that often clung to Dean was. And he was an omega after all, him helping out with a little brother was just him being a good omega. Everyone knew omegas were good with children.
As a result Dean somehow ended up with a reputation as a shy, intelligent, sweet-natured omega. One who didn’t sleep around and was probably ‘saving’ himself for his mate. An alpha’s wet dream basically. So naturally, he got hit on. A lot. He’d always been fairly popular, he was good looking, he knew it, but it seemed having a kid had turned him into alpha catnip. His doctor had warned him about it, said unmated omegas with children often developed a pseudo-heatscent as their body attempted to locate a mate to help raise their children, but a mate was the last thing on Dean’s mind. So he stopped letting guys down gently and instead started cultivating a reputation as a frigid ice-queen and that suited him just fine.
His heats were worse too though, and it was then, when he was stuck in his room fucking himself on a fake knot and pretending it was a warm real one, that he’d waver. He’d think about his nameless alpha, how he’d filled Dean up so perfectly, stretched him wide and fucked him open, and then wonder if any alpha would feel as good. Maybe they would. After all it wasn’t like he had any basis for comparison. He’d think he ought to go out and find someone and find out. But then his heat would fade and his libido would cool and Dean would dismiss those thoughts.
Maybe once Danny was older he could think about finding a mate. A nice alpha who smelled good and could ease his heats for him. When he imagined them, those nameless alphas always tended to have blue eyes and smell like hewn wood and spice though.
Danny was three and a half when Dean got his Bachelor’s. Living at home with his parents and Jo to help with Danny had meant his grades hadn’t suffered too much and his prospects were actually pretty good. Still, he didn’t lie exactly, but he sure as hell didn’t mention his son when he started job hunting. He was lucky. One of his professors had a friend in sales at a big construction firm that just happened to hiring graduates at the junior management level, and her good word got him an interview, and then Dean got himself the job. It was entry level, but Sandover was an old, well established firm, and it had good long term prospects.
His parents set him up with the bond for his first apartment and helped him with the move, and then Dean was suddenly an adult. Living on his own with his son, paying all the bills and making every decision. It was overwhelming to start with, especially with Danny to look after, but he made it work. He made it through his probation easily, and then got a promotion after 18 months on the job. Danny went to daycare, and then preschool, and then finally he started school.
When Dean turned 25 he had what was shaping up to a promising career and an adorable first-grader for a son, a lot really, especially for someone so young, but it wasn’t exactly the life he’d envisioned for himself and he couldn’t deny that he was lonely. He was in his physical prime, and his heats were hell, his body craving an alpha and a mate and more children.
There was Danny to worry about though. Dean tried dating, he certainly had enough offers, but when the subject of kids came up, he was always left disappointed. He didn’t agree to dinner with just any random guy, but even the nice, well-educated types he thought would make good mates, or good fathers to Danny – lawyers and accountants and the like – they all cooled when they found out Dean had a son.
Fed up with alphas, Dean starting dating women again, betas for the most part, and even though it was nice, so nice, to have someone warm to share a bed with, they couldn’t slake his heats and a part of him was still left aching and unfulfilled. It didn’t seem fair to him or the girls, even though he thought about it, really he did, because if he couldn’t give Danny an alpha, maybe he could give him a mom. At the very least it would stop the teasing he got at school for having an unmated father.
It just didn’t work though, and after the messy split from the last girl he’d been seeing, Cassie, who he’d really cared for, Dean gave up on dating full stop. Maybe he’d find someone, but he was done putting himself out there looking.
Instead he focused on his career and looking after his son.
***
Dean was handed a big client in his third year at Sandover, and his boss, Zachariah, started dropping hints about how Director of Sales and Marketing would be opening up in a few months because one of the managers was being promoted. Dean wanted it, so he worked his ass off. The new clients, an old investment firm looking to build a fancy new head office, weren’t easy to deal with, but by putting in a few hours each night after Danny had gone to bed, Dean was able to keep the project running smoothly and the clients happy and Zachariah impressed.
He was nervous leading up to the first big meeting of the project. Dean was presenting the finalized plans and Sandover’s tender for the construction to the firm’s executives. It was a big deal. The architects, engineers, key sub-contractors, Dean and client’s reps that he’d been dealing with over the past few months would all be there. Everything was ready, everything fit the brief and was carefully costed, but if Dean hadn’t budgeted it correctly, if the tender Sandover offered for construction was inflated, they’d lose the contract. It was as simple as that.
Adding to his stress levels - Dean’s heat was due.
Well, technically it was overdue.
He’d been so stressed that they’d been out of synch lately, a few days earlier, a few days late. Hard to track. Everything went smoothly to start with though. Dean had a big coffee and a muffin on his way to work as a treat to calm himself down, and it actually seemed to work somewhat. The board room was set up perfectly, his laptop hooked up to the big screen hung on the rear wall just for such meetings and the presentation he’d put together was loaded and looked great when he did a quick last minute run through.
Sure his nerves were going haywire, but he’d put in the work and had Zachariah and a few of the other higher management look over the drafts, so he knew the tender he’d put together was competitive at least.
He just had to sell it.
Everyone arrived on time and the assistants brought in coffee and refreshments and all in all it was going exactly how Dean had hoped. Then the executives from the investment firm arrived. Zachariah shot him a look and then darted forward to shake hands and smarm, and Dean was so nervous that he didn’t actually realize what was happening until he’d been introduced –
“Dean Smith! One of our Senior Project Managers, and the man who put Sandover’s tender together,”
- Except Dean wasn’t actually a Senior Project Manager, in fact that job title didn’t even exist at Sandover as far as he knew, but he didn’t point that out. Instead he just smiled and shook the hand of the tall, dark-haired man in front of him.
He scented the air automatically, filing away alpha and mated and something like oranges. Quite pleasant as far as alpha musks went.
“Michael Novak,” the alpha said and Dean nodded politely, recognizing the name.
“Pleased to meet you.”
And then there was another tall dark-haired man in front of him, except Dean didn’t have to scent the air to know he was an alpha, because it was him.
His alpha.
The same recognition flickered over the other man’s face, and oh god, he was even more handsome than Dean remembered, which shouldn’t have been possible. There was a ringing in his ears, but Dean shook his hand when offered, (It was warm and firm Dean had a sudden flashback of him gripping his hips so hard he’d had bruises for a week, of those long fingers twisted in his hair and pulling so his back arched and his neck stretched out so he could put his mouth there against Dean’s pulse point and suck--), and heard Zachariah introducing him to one Castiel Novak.
Castiel.
Novak.
His alpha had a name.
They stared too long, held hands too long, and Michael Novak coughed.
Castiel shook his head and released Dean, stepping back abruptly. Ignoring his flaming cheeks, Dean cleared his throat and did his best to ignore the proximity of the father of his son, the alpha his body was convinced was its mate. The first five minutes were rough, Dean was on the verge of a panic attack, unable to relax at all, but he focused on the figures, on how important this tender was, and was able through some miracle to get his head back in the game when all he wanted to do was throw himself across the board room and directly onto Castiel Novak.
But twenty minutes in, twenty minutes of avoiding so much as glancing in Castiel’s direction, he felt a trickle of sweat run down between his shoulder blades. And twenty-five minutes in he turned to point to some figures on the screen behind him, the pricing for the concrete from the sub-contractor he’d negotiated, and felt a distinctive, warm slipperiness between his ass cheeks.
He was wet. Not enough that anyone would be able to smell it yet, but enough that he felt horribly embarrassed. For the rest of the meeting he stayed right where he was, facing the room with his back to the wall.
He had to bite at the inside of his cheek and dig his fingernails into his palms to keep his rebelling arousal in check however. His heat. Castiel’s presence had finally triggered his delayed heat. He had a little while until it hit in full though, long enough to wrap up the meeting, speak to Zachariah, get home, arrange for his usual sitter Charlie to pick up Danny from school and watch him for a few nights. She worked from home and didn’t mind helping out on short notice.
Yes, Dean had it all figured out in his head. He was good like that, at planning and organization. It was why he’d done so well at Sandover so far. Of course the moment he finished presenting the tender, everything went to hell. Michael Novak was frowning and had a few concerns about the quote from the steel fabricator, but before Dean could hand that question off to one of Sandover’s structural engineers best suited to answer, Castiel stood abruptly and stalked out of the room, red-faced and more or less snarling.
Everyone turned to stare, and after a moment Michael stood. “Excuse me,” he said, and then the meeting was apparently over.
Zachariah stared after them horrified and Dean sank down into a nearby chair and wished heartily that the ground would open up and swallow him.
“What the hell was that Smith!?” his boss demanded, glaring down at him.
Dean sighed and rubbed at his temples. He was fucked. He’d screwed this up and he was definitely not getting that promotion and maybe he’d even get fired, and disgustingly, despite all that, it was the fact that his alpha had left, had snarled in disgust and walked away, abandoned him, that had his eyes stinging with tears he refused to shed. He was in heat though, he knew he needed to get out of the office before his hormones got the better of him and he had some sort of emotional break down and humiliated himself.
“I need to go home,” he told Zachariah.
“What?!” the older man hissed, leaning closer. He had awful coffee breath and Dean shrank away instinctively. “This tender is important Smith! You can’t just go home and have a cry about it you sniveling little bitch! You need to fix this! There’s a lot of money riding on this, resources we’ve got locked up!”
Dean stared up at him in shock. With him sitting down Zachariah was taller than Dean for a change and the beta was using that to his advantage, looming over him. He’d never mentioned Dean’s omega status before and certainly no one at work had ever called him a bitch. He couldn’t quite believe it had just happened.
He needed Zachariah on his side though, he couldn’t get fired, he had bills to pay. Dean stood up and nodded, pushed down on the urge to punch his boss in his fat mouth. “You’re right sir, I’ll go talk to them, see if the reps can tell me how to fix this.”
“Yes, you’d better,” Zachariah sneered. “Off you go then.” He waved his hand dismissively.
Dean ignored the pitying looks he was getting from the few people still lingering in the board room and strode out into the hall. To his relief and mortification, Castiel and Michael Novak hadn’t left. They were standing in the foyer near the elevators and Michael had Castiel by the shoulders and was hissing something in his ear, tone stern.
Dean squared his shoulders and walked over towards them.
He didn’t address Castiel, clearly there was no point. “Excuse me, Mr Novak?” he said, stopping a polite distance from Michael. It was Castiel that twisted to stare at him though, panting and scenting the air.
Suddenly a wave of alpha musk hit him, (pine and spice and fucking heaven), that had Dean’s mouthwatering, and he realized that Castiel was in a rut. And he was scenting Dean. Instantly Dean’s body responded and he actually felt his skin heat as he slipped into full heat, started giving of the sweet scent of an unmated omega looking for a mate.
Castiel growled and Michael swore. “Oh for fucksake.” He hammered at the lift button, already lit-up and glowing. “You there, Smith,” Dean dragged his eyes from Castiel’s to meet his brother’s. “Are you the omega from California? Hooked up with my brother years back?”
Dean nodded.
The lift chimed and the doors opened.
Michael tried to herd his brother inside but Castiel snarled and tried to get to Dean. Sighing, Michael glanced around at their audience with obvious embarrassment. “Smith,” he hissed, low so his voice wouldn’t carry too far. “I don’t know what the hell went on between you and Castiel, but you’re in heat and he’s in a rut, so how about I just drop you back at his place and you two sort this mess out yourselves hmm?”
That sounded like an excellent suggestion. Dean stepped into the lift. It was suddenly much easier for Michael to get Castiel inside. As soon as the doors closed Michael sighed in relief.
“My place,” Dean said. “Castiel can come… But I have to be at home.” And Danny, he needed to call Charlie.
Michael grunted as Castiel made another effort to escape his grasp and lunge for Dean. The taller alpha got him in a headlock, “Can you drive?” he asked breathlessly. “Because I don’t think you should be in a car together. I’d rather not see my brother arrested for public indecency on the six o’clock news.”
No way could Dean drive. “Um… Hold him when we get to the lobby,” Dean told Michael. “I’ll get a cab.”
“Fine,” Michael grumbled as Castiel squirmed and tried to elbow him and bite him at the same time. “Address?”
Dean reeled it off right as the doors chimed.
“Run,” Michael suggested.
Dean ran, heart racing, his inner omega eager to be caught, but he stamped down on that and instead threw himself into the first unoccupied cab he saw. He could see Castiel and Michael out of the rear window, just like something out of a movie. With trembling fingers he pulled out his phone and called Charlie. She made suitably sympathetic noises about his unexpected heat, said she’d pick up Danny after school and told him to call her tomorrow when it had lulled a little and left it that.
It was nearly lunchtime and traffic across town was pretty terrible, so it was a good twenty minutes before Dean was paying the driver and dashing into his building. He’d left his things at work, but luckily he had his keys and wallet in his pocket out of habit.
He’d barely made it through the door of his apartment when the intercom was buzzing. Dean answered it immediately. The little screen flicked to life showing an extremely irritated Michael Novak, hanging onto what Dean assumed was Castiel’s arm. He’d lost his jacket and his shirt and tie were hanging off him haphazardly. “Buzz us up already,” he snapped.
Dean didn’t need to be told twice.
The two or three minutes it took for them to make it to his door seemed to drag out for hours. Dean pulled off his jacket, yanked off his tie, toed his shoes off and then paced across the tiles in his socks. Finally, there was a thud as someone collapsed against his door, a muffled “Fucking hell Castiel!” and then actual knocking.
Dean opened the door and Castiel more or less pounced on him. Over his shoulder he saw Michael shake his head. There was a black eye blossoming on his face. “Tell him to call me when his brain returns,” he told Dean then pulled the door shut between them decisively.
Castiel didn’t seem to notice, too intent on pawing at Dean and scenting him obnoxiously. “Dean,” he said. “Mate.” And then they were kissing and stumbling, pressing each other into walls and tables and any convenient surface.
Blindly, Dean led him towards his bedroom. It was like that night six years ago all over again, but more intense. Dean’s heat flared and Castiel seemed half-mad with his rut and they didn’t make it to the bed this time. They made it to the bedroom, but Dean was face-down in the thick carpet in front of the wardrobe when Castiel mounted him. They were both still dressed, pants shoved down around their thighs, but that was all.
Dean lost all ability to think as his heat hit him with full intensity. Sweat stuck his clothes to his skin and he felt like he was on fire, aching and hollow, but then his alpha was there, blunt head of his cock sliding against him were he was wet and open, making him whine and shiver. Castiel felt incredible pushing into him, opening him up in a way that satisfied some deep ache Dean had been ignoring for years. He thrashed and wailed and canted his ass up, desperate for more, trying to get his alpha as deep as possible.
Castiel grunted and gasped and fucked him hard and deep, the wet sound of it obscene, the violence of his thrusts shoving Dean up along the carpet in little jerks. And then his knot was swelling, stretching Dean as he slammed in and out until it caught. It throbbed and pulsed against his walls as it swelled up completely, and Dean cried with the aching pleasure of it.
Castiel rutted against him desperately, churning up Dean’s insides. “Mate,” he growled again, mouthing at Dean’s neck even though his collar was in the way.
“Yes,” Dean panted, unable to deny the bone-deep certainty he felt in the moment. “Mate. Mate me, please alpha.”
Castiel slammed his hips up against Dean’s ass and snarled in satisfaction. He pulled at Dean’s shirt, tearing at the cotton until he could get his mouth on Dean’s skin and then he sank his teeth into the meat where his neck met his shoulder. Bright sharp pain throbbed there, but all Dean felt was joy.
A claim. They weren’t fucking, they were mating. His alpha, Castiel, wanted him. His dick pulsed and he came in a shuddering wave of heat, his ass clenching and pulsing around his mate’s knot.
Afterwards they lay curled into each other, both strung out on mating pheromones, scenting and touching compulsively. Once Castiel’s knot softened they stripped and shifted to the bed. Dean’s heat was strong and he couldn’t focus on much more than how incredibly horny he was and how much he loved his mate’s thick dick and his fat knot splitting him open, so there wasn’t much in the way of conversation beyond ‘oh god’, ‘harder’ and ‘fuck.
Dean bit Castiel sometime during round three, when he was sitting on top of his alpha and riding his knot, getting it right where he wanted and milking loads of come from him by the happiest of coincidence. Castiel’s eyes rolled back in his head as Dean claimed him back, completing the mating, and he came almost immediately, the feel of his knot pulsing inside setting Dean off all over again, adding to the mess of come across his stomach.
“I looked for you,” Castiel told him after round four or five, when Dean was draped over him, knot firmly embedded in his ass in a satisfying ache. “I searched, but no one knew you, I couldn’t find you. I woke up and you were just gone.”
“I left my number, on the desk,” Dean said.
Castiel went very still. “What?”
Dean shrugged. “Wanted to see you again, but I didn’t wanna assume… so I… left you a note.”
“I didn’t see it,” Castiel said, sounding devastated.
Dean’s heat was still messing with him, had his thoughts thick like molasses. “Didn’t think you wanted me,” he admitted. “You didn’t even ask my name.”
Castiel lifted his head and kissed him hard. “I wanted you,” he insisted. “I wanted to mate you. God Dean I came so close to claiming you that night...” He kissed him again, mumbled more words. “You were so beautiful… and you smelled so good, felt so good.” He nuzzled at Dean as he spoke. “Wanted to make you mine so badly.”
Even though they were still tied from their last mating, his words made Dean hot and needy all over again. He shifted restlessly, rolling his hips so he could savor the feel of Castiel’s knot. “M’yours,” he told him breathlessly. “Been yours, all this time.”
And then they were kissing and there was no more talk for a long while.
***
Dean awoke sometime closer to lunch than breakfast. Castiel was curled behind him, one arm wrapped around him and their legs entwined. Dean ached, but in the most delicious, sated way. He couldn’t remember when he’d last felt so relaxed. The first time he held Danny maybe.
The thought jarred him from the heat-daze he’d been stuck in and Castiel shifted, sensing his worry.
“Dean?” he croaked, licking at his chapped pink lips and squinting at him.
Dean swallowed. In the light of day and without his heat clouding his thoughts, Castiel was just as gorgeous as he remembered. Perhaps even more so with his hair sticking up all over the place and hickeys and love bites scattered across his skin. Dean felt a smug satisfaction with how thoroughly used his mate looked. His mate. Just thinking it made him feel giddy with happiness and that sense of right, of belonging gave him the strength to just come out and say it.
“I was 18 when we met,” he told Castiel. “I was a sophomore at Stanford. I snuck out of my dorm. You were the first… I’d never been with an alpha before.”
“I remember,” Cas almost purred. “The first time I knotted you, you were so loud I thought we might get thrown out of the hotel.”
Dean rolled his eyes. “Yeah well, you knotted me too good,” he said.
Castiel frowned and the smug expression fell off his face. “Did I… did I hurt you? Was that why you left?”
“No you didn’t hurt me,” Dean told him and then just blurted: “You ah, you got me pregnant.”
Castiel sat up. “What?”
Dean suddenly couldn’t meet his eyes. “I didn’t know your name, I didn’t know how to find you,” he said. “It was my fault, so I ah… did what I had to do.”
Castiel swallowed and pulled Dean into his arms. “I should have told you that I wanted more, that I wanted to see you again,” he said. “I was irresponsible and I should have known better. I didn’t even ask if you were on birth control I just…”
Dean shrugged. “I was, just, turns out they aren’t completely effective the first few days after a heat.”
“Ah,” Castiel said then was quiet for a long time, stroking Dean’s hair. “I’m sorry you had to go through that alone, and thank you for telling me.”
Dean immediately saw Castiel had gotten the wrong idea. “I kept it. Him,” he said in a rush. “His name is Daniel and he’s six.”
Castiel pulled back to stare at him in shock. “I… We have a son?”
Dean nodded.
“Where is he?”
“Staying with a friend,” Dean told him. “She helps out when I have heats.”
Castiel’s eyes were bugging out of his head.
Dean let him process. “He’s got your eyes,” he said quietly. “And he sorta smells like you. Made it easier sort of. I hardly knew you but I missed you so bad…”
“Oh Dean,” Castiel said and then kissed him. “I’m so glad I found you again.”
Dean smiled. “Me too.”