Raff catches my eye in the dim room. The light from the hallway cuts a thin line across his face before I close the door, and in that brief second I see the same thought I'm having reflected back at me.
Our sweet boy is feeling shy.
The door clicks shut, and Raff’s hand finds my arm in the dark, his grip firm as we move toward the bed.
My body is a mess of aches—the graze on my arm,the split skin on my knuckles, the deep bruising on my ribs—but underneath it all is a different kind of ache, a gnawing emptiness where my pack feels fractured.
I move first, climbing into bed behind the beta. Adam is curled on the far edge of the mattress, as close to falling off as he can get without actually hitting the floor. Like he's trying to take up as little space as possible. Like he's not sure he belongs in this bed tonight.
That's not going to work.
I slip my arm around his middle and pull, gently but firmly, dragging him toward the center of the mattress. He resists for a second, his body stiff, a small sound catching in his throat.
"Come here," I murmur. “I need you between us.”
He lets me move him. His back settles against my chest, and I can feel how rigid he is, every muscle locked tight. And his scent is off too. He smells like sun-warmed cotton, salt, and the clean soap from his shower, but threaded through all of it is something sharp and acrid that makes my chest ache.
Distress.
I've scented plenty of betas in my life. They don't carry emotion in their scent the way omegas and alphas do. It's muted and incredibly subtle. Half the time you'd miss it if you weren't paying attention. But Adam's distress has always cut through his natural scent like a knife through paper.
Raff slips into bed on the other side. The mattress dips and Adam is between us now, sandwiched in our shared warmth. Right where he belongs.
But he's still so damn tense, his controlled breaths making it clear that he wants us to believe he’s asleep.
"You're not sleeping," I murmur against the back of his neck.
The smallest whisper drifts from the beta. "No."
I wrap my arm across his waist and pull him tighter against me. In the dim moonlight seeping through the lace curtains, I can see Raff's hand find Adam's, their fingers lacing together across the beta’s stomach. Adam's breath hitches, and his shoulders tremble once, then still.
He needs this.
I can see it in the way his body fights between pulling away and pressing closer, wanting to be held but not sure he deserves it right now. The tension in his muscles is at war with the way his fingers grip Raff's hand, knuckles going white in the silver light, holding on like he's scared we'll let go.
We won't.
I press my lips to the back of his neck. Raff brings Adam's hand to his mouth and kisses his knuckles.
And slowly, one breath at a time, the wire-tight tension in Adam's body begins to ease. Not all the way. Not tonight. But enough that his breathing deepens and his shoulders drop, and he lets himself sink into the space between us.
"I've got you," I whisper against his skin. "We've got you."
His hand tightens in Raff's as I kiss the knob of his spine. I taste clean skin and the faint salt of his sweat. I let my hand slide from his hip, down over the soft skin of his belly, feeling the abs quiver under my touch. Raff’s hand follows, tracing the line of his collarbone, his thumb stroking the hollow of his throat.
"Look at you," I breathe against his skin. "So fucking perfect."
Raff hums in agreement, his mouth finding the sensitivespot right behind Adam's ear. "So beautiful, Adam. The most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
Adam lets out a shaky breath, a sound that's half a whimper, half a sigh. He turns his head a fraction of an inch, and I capture his lips.
It's a soft kiss at first, a gentle press, but he opens for me immediately, his tongue meeting mine with a desperate hunger. He tastes like mint toothpaste and need.
Raff kisses his neck, his jaw, his shoulder, his hands roaming over Adam's chest, pinching a nipple through the thin cotton of his shirt.
Our sweet boy arches into our touch, his body finally responding, the pretense of sleep forgotten. He rolls onto his back, caught between us, and we both move with him. I kiss him again, deeper this time, while Raff pushes his T-shirt up, exposing his chest to the cool air. Then the alpha leans down, his mouth closing over one of Adam's nipples, his tongue swirling around the peak, making Adam gasp into my mouth.
"We've been wanting this all night," I say, pulling back to look at him. His eyes are gleaming in the dim light, his lips swollen from my kiss. "Fuck, I need you."
