Skylar's mouth finds my throat, kissing and biting gently as he fucks up into me harder. "That's it," he says between thrusts. "Take what you need. I've got you."
I ride him faster, chasing the relief that's building with every stroke. My hands clutch at his shoulders as my head tips back. The spike's still there, but Skylar's fucking it out of me with steady, deep thrusts that hit exactly where I need them. Every time he bottoms out I feel the pressure ease a little more. Every time I clench around him I feel the heat crest and then recede just enough to breathe.
He doesn't let up. He fucks me through it, murmuring soft encouragement against my skin, one hand sliding between us to stroke my cock in time with his thrusts. The dual sensation is almost too much. I come with a broken cry, clenching hard around him as the first real wave of relief crashes over me. Skylar follows right after, groaning my name as he spills inside me.
I sag against him, pressing a soft kiss into the curve of his neck.
“How are you feeling, Rys? Is your heat here?”
I shake my head. “No. I... maybe just all of our scents finally settling. It’s been a lot. I don’t still feel hot or anything.” I rock my hips forward, humming when Skylar’s cock thickens a little inside of me. He lets out a groan, stilling my movement.
“Give me a minute, Rys. Damn.” He presses a kiss to my forehead and then to my cheek before capturing my lips. “Your heat is going to be wild, isn’t it? I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.” He mumbles something else but I’m already dozing off, pleasantly sated and slightly terrified that I’m going to go into heat at the exact moment the investigation is tying up.
We're still tangled together on the couch, Skylar still inside me, when Kade comes home. Skylar’s arm tightens around my waist before his head lifts from the back of the couch, and I blinktoward the door as Kade steps inside with a bag in one hand and rain dark on the shoulders of his coat.
He takes in the room in one long look. The movie credits looping silently on the screen, Skylar beneath me, my clothes still a mess, the scent of the spike thick enough that there’s no mistaking what happened while he was gone.
Kade sets the bag down and closes the door carefully. His cedar deepens immediately, wrapping around the sharp edges still left in my body, a smile spreading across his face. He dips his head to Skylar first, stealing a long, slow kiss before doing the same with me. Then he shrugs off his coat and sits beside us, my body naturally leaning to my Alpha as well.
The contact of his hand on my back helps more than I thought it would. Kade’s thumb moves in slow circles between my shoulders as Skylar presses his mouth to my shoulder once, then stays there. My body is still oversensitive and loose, but the pain is gone. The panic that should have followed it never quite finds room to land.
“It wasn’t a full heat,” I say after a while, my voice a little rough around the edges. They both hum, pressing kisses and soft touches everywhere they can reach, nearly lulling me back to sleep.
Skylar is the first one to speak after the quiet stretches too long. “This is going to get worse before it gets better.”
I know he means the case. Declan. Morrison. Hex. The federal team coming. The danger waiting outside the apartment with a name and a face now. But I don’t want to think about any of that. I turn my face into his shoulder. “No work talk. Please just hold me.”
Skylar goes quiet again. His arms tighten around me in answer, and Kade’s hand presses a little more firmly against my waist. Then I’m slowly lifted off of Skylar, a small gasp falling from my lips as slick and cum slip down my thighs. “What—”
“Just taking our Omega to his nest. You asked to be held and what better way than to do that, sweetheart?”
I can’t argue with him as I curl into his chest, Skylar two steps behind us.
Skylar
A week had passed since the name Declan Smisson entered our lives, and the city still felt like it was holding its breath. Hex hadn't surfaced. Every lead on his location had gone cold within hours, and the federal apprehension team was due in two days. In the meantime the work had narrowed to one man and the question of how deeply Chief Morrison was involved.
We’ve spent long hours pulling every record we could find on Declan, every transaction that touched his name, and every gap in the station's access logs that might point to him.
But it’s the newness of my relationship with two men I’m falling hard for that’s taking every other part of day. We’re still trying to find our rhythm but it’s easier now. Emrys cooks when he can’t sleep. Kade disappears into contracts and security liabilities when it gets too quiet and I try to keep my focus on the evidence even when the urge to go back to the station and demand answers grows stronger every day.
A call comes on a Thursday afternoon while I'm at the long table in Kade's office with Dana and Sloane. Morrison's name appears on my screen and I step into the hallway to answer it. I expect another round of bureaucratic stonewalling. I don't expect the accusation that opens the conversation.
"Someone's been accessing restricted files on the Hex case and the West Talbot assault," she says without greeting. "Internal logs show repeated queries from outside the building. I'm asking you directly, Grayson. Is it you?"
The question lands like a slap. I keep my voice level even as my amber sharpens beneath my skin. "If someone's digging into those files it's because the case was mishandled from the beginning. I've been working with the task force to connect the dots you refused to look at. If that makes me the problem, then yes, I'm the problem."
Morrison's voice tightens. "You were removed from the active investigation for a reason. Your personal connections have compromised your judgment. I won't have you dragging this department through another scandal while a killer walks free."
The words hit exactly where she means them to. My connection to Emrys and Kade has been turned into a weapon against me, and she's wielding it without hesitation. I feel the old reflex to shut down and walk away rise and then settle. I'm not walking away this time.
"You're protecting him," I say. "You've been protecting him since the night Kade was arrested. The call that came in tooearly, the evidence that was mishandled, the way you kept Kade on the suspect list even after the footage cleared him. All of it points to the same thing. You knew who attacked Emrys and you chose not to stop it."
There's a long silence on the other end of the line. When she speaks again her voice has lost some of its edge. "Come to my house. We're not doing this over the phone."
She ends the call before I can answer. I stand in the hallway for a moment with the phone still in my hand and the weight of the accusation settling in my chest. Then I grab my coat and tell Kade I'm going to see her. He doesn't try to stop me. He only nods once and says he'll be here when I get back.
Morrison's house sits on a quiet street in one of the older neighborhoods on the west side of Ansdale. It's a modest two-story with a small porch and a yard that's seen better days. I park at the curb and walk up the path without giving myself time to second-guess the decision. She opens the door before I can knock. The woman who stands in the doorway isn't the chief I've faced across her desk for the past week. The severe bun is gone. Her hair hangs loose around her shoulders and her face looks older in the afternoon light. The bureaucratic armor she wears like a second skin has slipped, and what remains is exhaustion.
