I nuzzle against the warmth cocooning me, leaving a trail of kisses across the pale blond hair that runs over his chest. I can feel us shifting, moving around in the bed as I start to drift off, my body already gearing up for the next wave. Familiar voices talk quietly around me, but it’s hard to focus, and soon we’re lying down again, Paul on his back with me across his stomach and chest. My fingers come up under my jaw to use as a pillow, and someone pulls a soft blanket over my back.
My mind and body drift in a sea of relaxation—still stuffed full of this alpha—and I nod off, listening to the quiet voices around me.
Chapter 76
“Holy shit, are your arms ok?” Al slides up beside me and I clamp a hand over his mouth to keep him from waking up the tiny omega I’m currently locked inside of. She’s snoring softly against my chest, and while it tickles like crazy, I’m not ready to let her go yet. Not that she could get very far without hurting herself. We’re still waiting for my knot to go down, but I’m loath to leave this level of intimacy that she’s shared with us. I knew I enjoyed taking care of my pack, but she’s opened a whole new side to it that I never imagined. Just being able to hold her, to kiss her. I know she’s not really mine, but it still feels so right, and I find myself asking the universe what I need to do to keep her with us.
Greg pulls a blanket over her back, and she murmurs into my chest, nuzzling her jaw against me, marking me with more than just her scent. My hands clutch reflexively, not wanting to let hergo, but she quickly settles back down before I can wake her with my fumbling. Spence stares at the two of us for a moment before carefully swinging his leg over the side of the bed and walking out of the room.
I never paid much attention to my packmate’s bodies, because we all live together and while I’ve seen them both in various states of undress, we’re basically family; you don’t check out your family’s ass. I have to admit now that it’s easy to tell how much time the big guy spends at the gym. Even his muscles have muscles, and his ass has got those weird dimples on the sides when he’s walking away.
My mind drifts, thinking of the time we’ve spent with this omega. We’ve barely known her a week, but she’s already important to us...all of us, including Alistair, with his surly attitude. Something changed in him this week—between meeting her and getting our asses soundly handed to us at Scrabble, I’ve seen him smile more in the last six days than I have in the last six months, even when he and Emily were dating. Despite his harsh attitude towards her, she just keeps coming back and being a pain in his ass, and I think he needed that. Someone to shock him out of himself.
Spence returns while I’m deep in thought about the future, and I pointedly stare up at the ceiling to avoid seeing his dick swing back and forth, or worse, bob up and down if he’s erect again. He doesn’t say anything, just takes one of my arms and runs a warm, damp washrag over it, inspecting the scratches she left. He hums thoughtfully for a moment before dabbing a couple of spots that are bleeding with ointment and putting band-aids over them. I don’t know how long they’ll last if she does that again, but it’s still sweet of him to try.
After dealing with my arms, he goes over and pulls five bottles of water out of the case I brought up earlier, handing one to Greg and two to me. Spence crawls back up into the nest, trying topass a bottle over to Alistair. The smaller man tries to wave it off, loudly whispering that he doesn’t need anything, and he doesn’t know if she’s going to want him, but I can see in his eyes how nervous he really is.
She’s invited him into her nest, and even told me she wants him too, but he’s not ready to trust that, not with his past. I don’t know if he told Spence, but I badgered him until he admitted what happened with his last pack to me, and the man is terrified of being rejected again. He hasn’t said it in so many words, but the desperation in his actions earlier is all the confirmation I need.
I’m pretty sure Sarah knows about it too—it took her an awfully long time to come back to the game when she went to retrieve him a couple of nights ago, and while I can’t condone listening in on someone else’s phone conversation, I can understand her impulsive behavior to learn more about our pack. Especially the one who’s been so closed off. I doubt he hung up and trotted downstairs as soon as she called him, and she only came back a minute before he arrived. She also kept throwing guilty glances his way; though if neither of them will talk about it, it doesn’t take an ace detective to figure out something happened. Thank fuck, because I’m doing good to figure out any mysteries at all as a traffic cop.
In truth, our pack leader looks ready to bolt at any second, and I can’t let that happen. Regardless of if she decides in the end that she doesn’t want to keep us, she would be devastated if he left now just because he got cold feet. I saw how confused she looked earlier when she was nesting. Something was missing, or someone, and I knew exactly who it was. She calmed down considerably once he donated his clothes to the cause.
Alistair’s voice is low as he talks to Greg, his eyes darting frantically around the room. The scent of his anxiety is barely discernible over the strawberries and cream heat pheromonesthat Sarah is pumping out, even in her sleep. He’s scooting closer and closer to the edge of the nest while we all rest from her first round, and as much as I’m enjoying the peaceful moment, I worry he’s going to run if she doesn’t wake up soon. For all his bravado, he’s terrified of her and what she could do to him. Or, more specifically, what her rejection at this time could do to him.
Greg seems to be patiently trying to explain something, and Alistair shakes his head a few times, gesturing towards the door until Spence’s big hand lands on his shoulder. They’ve mostly been ignoring our gentle giant until now, but he seems determined to talk, and if he decides you need to hear it, he won’t usually give up. The big guy leans in, shaking Alistair lightly. His smile is gentle, friendly, as his voice drifts quietly over to me, barely audible over the omega’s snoring. “Of course she wants you. She invited you in, wanted your clothes and stuff for her nest. I don’t know much about omegas, but I know that means she wants you. She wouldn’t want your scent in her space if she didn’t like you.” He pauses for a minute, brow furrowed in thought. “Even though you’ve been kind of a butthead. Maybe she got enough of a peek at the real you to see behind all the attitude you’ve been throwing at her.”
Spence’s grin widens, but he looks even sadder now, and I wonder if he’s thinking about what might happen after her heat. I know it’s been on my mind ever since we agreed to this. I know it could hurt, but I have to hope she can see us as potential mates, even if we aren’t fated. From what I’ve seen this week, anyone would be lucky to have her in their lives, pack or not, and I hope she’ll agree to letting us court her.
Chapter 77
I’ve never had a heat that consisted of so many power naps, I swear. Maybe it’s just because I won’t be sleeping much for the foreseeable future, my body’s decided to pass out when I’m not cramping. Of course, it’s not like I got a lot of rest last night since the spikes started.
Being an omega sucks ass sometimes. Then again, this is my first heat with someone to take care of me and not on suppressants, so that could be factoring in too. Regardless, it feels nice to wake up cuddled against a warm, purring chest. It was a shock the first time I woke up cuddled with Greg, but now it’s something I look forward to every morning. My beta gives amazing snuggles, and sometimes it makes it really hard to get out of bed.
The warm body underneath me right now isn’tmybeta; it isn’t a beta at all since it’s purring. Coarse chest hair brushes againstmy cheek as I rub against him, and Paul’s purr tapers down. He never stops completely as his hand comes up and brushes my hair back from my sweaty forehead, making me tilt my face back to look at him. He has that sweet smile again, the one I want to see more of. “Hey there, pretty girl. How you feelin’?”
I think about it for a few moments, assessing my body. He isn’t locked inside me anymore, and someone has draped a blanket over me. It’s lightweight but warm, a butter-soft turquoise blanket that I remember Spence handling at the nesting store. I drag it up to my cheek to test the feel against my face and I’m instantly taken aback that it doesn’t smell like any of my pack. I quickly pull it away from my nose, rubbing it against Paul’s chest and neck, where his scent is strongest. He freezes for a moment, and I’m worried I’ve done something wrong until his arms tighten around me and his purr grows even louder than before. He drops his face, rubbing his jaw against the top of my head and making me never want to leave this warm little cocoon we’ve made.
Unfortunately, my body has other ideas about what I need, and I still have an alpha I need to claim…even if it’s only in my mind. I’m still not sure if he really wants me; he’s so broken and he doesn’t like omegas—I can’t even blame him for that. Though I would like to get ahold of that skanky ho that made him feel this way and beat the bejesus out of her for hurting him. She better hope she never comes back to the center, ’cause if I find her, it’s gonna take more than her pack to stop me from kicking her ass. From what I heard, they’re more intellectual and would probably just run around, waving their arms and shouting for help. I can count on Greg keeping the other guards away until I’m done.
I look over and meet Al’s eyes where he’s sitting next to Spence and Greg. Something about my face makes him recoil and it takes me a moment to realize that there’s a downright evil grinspread across my features at the thought of beating the shit out of that little tramp in his defense. It’s frustrating because as much as I would enjoy that, it also means that my possessive instincts are flaring up again, and I’m going to need him sooner rather than later. I want to make sure he knows how I feel before I become nothing more than an incoherent, demanding body that takes and takes and takes. I need to make sure he understands that it’s him I want, not just any available alpha.
He looks uncertainly around at my other guys as I disentangle myself from Paul and crawl across the mattress to him, stopping in front of him to sit up on my knees before leaning in and scent-marking his chest and face. He’s short enough for me to reach much easier than any of the rest of them. His eyes are wary, like he still expects me to kick him out of my nest even when I’m sitting nearly in his lap and leaking slick like a fucking faucet. Of all the alphas here, his smell reminds me most of home. They all smell good, and they all remind me of certain parts of growing up, but some of my first memories were of waking up to this smell as Abuela worked in the kitchen after the weeks we spent harvesting pecan trees. It was usually in the time leading up to Thanksgiving break, so there were often pies and stuff too, but this is the one I remember the most.
He stares at me, eyes flicking back and forth between my own before his hand reaches out. He lets his fingers trail over my cheek and down to cup my jaw before pulling me close to kiss me, and my eyes fall shut. It starts off soft, tentative, like he’s afraid I’m going to pull away. Suddenly his other hand is there, holding me, tilting my head back so he can deepen the kiss.
He’s insistent, his mouth crushing against mine, his teeth nipping at my lips. A low growl rumbles from his chest, causing me to whine and open for him, and then his tongue is there, demanding entry. It feels like I’m being consumed as he takes over completely, tilting my whole body back and covering it withhis. I hear Greg and Paul mumbling something and Spence’s voice a bit louder. “Al, come on, it’s not like she’s trying to get away, chill. I said relax, not unleash the beast.” But I can’t focus on any of that because that’s what it feels like, being overwhelmed by sensation and the waves of desperate need rolling off this man.
His weight comes down against my thighs, and I open without thinking, my legs raising to wrap around his hips as he rocks his hard cock against me, finally breaking the kiss. The growl grows louder, broken by grunts as he thrusts against my core, his hard shaft grinding my clit. Thank fuck I’m so wet, or the pressure would be uncomfortable instead of the easy slide that’s already pushing me close to the edge. I was worried he’d have the same issue as Spence, but it looks like I’ll be coming first if he keeps this up.
I force my eyes to open, to look up at the face above me. Alistair looks nearly feral, teeth gritted in a snarl as he stares down at me. His eyes lock on mine; they’re are filled with desperation, though whether it’s from holding back or something else, I don’t know. His head drops again, nuzzling between my neck and shoulder, scraping his teeth along the sensitive skin there. I’m not afraid, not like I was at the start. These men would never try to bond me without consent, so I tip my neck, allowing better access.
Al nips up the side of my neck, his teeth teasing my earlobe as he grunts out, “Mine!” in a rough, broken voice. That’s all it takes to push me over the edge, and fireworks go off behind my eyes as they squeeze shut against the overstimulation.
He finally slows as I come down, going back to soft, tender kisses wherever he can reach, across my cheeks and forehead, over my eyelids, down my neck, and it’s almost too much; it makes me feel wanted, cherished. It makes me feel like I actually belong here with these guys, and for a moment I wish I couldstay forever and never have to go back to my lonely dorm room with just me and Greg and Shaggy. I feel vulnerable in a way I haven’t before, and I’m not sure if I like it, or if I want to crawl under a blanket and hide.
Chapter 78
