Fenrir paused, but it didn’t appear as though he was joking. “You have no idea how I am with money. I could be terrible with it, too.”
“Not a chance. People who’ve lived without something most of their lives tend to appreciate it more when they finally get it. You can appreciate my coin, and I can appreciate you. Fair trade.”
“How can you say that with such a straight face?”
“Is that your way of calling me romantic?”
“That depends,” he did up another stitch, “what happened with the omega you spent the White Hunt with?”
“Them?” Oberon shrugged. “I don’t even remember if they were male or female.”
He paused. “You’re also into women?”
“Come on, precious. Give me a break.”
“King.”
“I’m into you, Fenrir. Just you.” When he tried to sit up, Fenrir stopped him with a hand over his throat, but Oberon merely grinned, settling on his elbows. “Do I need to bite you again to prove it? I will. Gladly. I was already planning on it, in fact. It irks me that you can’t recall such an important milestone between us.”
Confident the alpha would stay put, he went back to patching him up. “It’s not like I wanted to forget.”
“If I’d known about you beforehand, I never would have joined the White Hunt. What do you say? Can we call it even?”
“You're such a fucking smooth talker.” He finished with the final stitch. “The bullet didn’t go very deep.”
“I know. I dug it out before you found me. No serious damage either. I’ll be fine.”
“You would have frozen to death or bled out if not for me,” he reminded.
“I have such a doting omega.”
Fenrir’s eyes narrowed and Oberon laughed. “Hold on…” If he’d dug out the bullet… Fenrir shoved the alpha’s shoulder, sending him flat onto the bed and stood. “You were faking it.”
“I was not,” he argued. “Look. Literally shot.”
“A White Frost that’s never taken a bullet before? Come on.”
“Okay, so the cold hurt more than the injury, and I was bleeding so much because I used my fingers to pull the offensive piece of metal out. That doesn’t really change anything.”
“How fast is your alpha healing?” As a dominant alpha, it had to be rather impressive. Fen narrowed his eyes. “I practically carried you all the way here. Are you telling me we could have made it to shelter faster if you—”
Oberon emitted a pained sound and curled in on himself, and Fenrir shot forward, checking the stitching in a mild panic.
Before the alpha peeled one eye open and smirked at him.
“Fuck you, King.” Fenrir growled and pulled away, cursing under his breath as the alpha laughed at his naivety. He started cleaning up, tossing things with a bit more force than necessary back into the first aid kit, not bothering to stop the alpha when he sat up, even though there was risk he’d pull a stitch for real.
Let him.
Let him bleed out for that matter.
Stupid, mother fucking—
Soothing pheromones brushed against his skin, and Fen made a swatting motion as though that could stop them. “Enough.”
“Are you really that mad?”
“That you tricked me?”