Page 27 of Welcome to Seaman’s Cove: Part Two

Not thinking, I surge forward and seize Hunter’s lips in a wild kiss. We move against each other with desperate thrusts of our tongues until we both go still and come at the same time, panting, mouth to mouth.

When the tension melts from Hunter’s shoulders he rasps, “I need my pack.”

The euphoria drops out of me in an instant. He didn’t really want me. This was about bonding sickness. He wants Madison and Caspian. Phoenix, too. I’m pretty sure he’s been in love with Phoenix for as long as Phoenix has been in love with him. They’re going to be a pack. That much is clear even to me.

And I’m going to be left behind.

I pull away from Hunter, wiping my cum-covered hand on my shirt. This was a mistake. Before I can make it off the bed, Hunter lunges for me and pins me down. I stare up at him in confusion.

“That means you, Sebastian,” Hunter says.

For the first time, I see the commanding alpha Phoenix always talked about. Not a man weakened by bonding sickness, but a man with fire in his eyes. A man who knows what he wants and is in control of every desire he has.

Phoenix appears over Hunter’s shoulder, wearing a shit-eating grin. “Hear that? You’re pack, Sebby. Just like I said.” He wipes the back of his hand over his mouth, which is still covered in cum. “Hunter’s got great taste. I knew he’d want you as much as I do.”

I shake my head, still not sure I believe what they’re saying.

Hunter drags his nose along my neck, and I can’t stop my body’s response. “You’re pack, beta. Be mine, too.”

“I don’t want… a pack,” I gasp as Hunter presses his still hard cock against me. Mine quickly reacts to the pressure, swelling despite being spent.

“I think you do.” Hunter grins.

This is the dominant alpha Phoenix told me about, the one that always scared me. But right now, I’m as aroused as I am terrified.

Hunter rocks his hips against mine. “You want my fat cock in that tight little ass of yours. That’s what you were thinking about when you came, wasn’t it? How I’d stretch you so good, you’d be sore for days. Did you imagine my teeth in you, too? Because I did.”

“So did I,” Phoenix quips.

“I don’t want a pack,” I repeat, though the words come out overly rehearsed and forced.

Hunter pulls back enough to study me. “Why?”

“Good luck.” Phoenix chuckles, nipping at my ear in a way that has me biting back a moan. “I’ve been trying to get him to give me a good reason for over a year.” I open my mouth to speak, but Phoenix puts his finger over my lips. “Not liking alphas isn’t a good reason, because you clearly like us.”

Hunter shifts his weight to one hand and snakes the other between our bodies and into my shorts. “You definitely want us.” He gives my cock a firm squeeze. “And I’m damn sure you want Madi. Good bet you’ll be all over Caspian.”

“Hell yeah.” Phoenix licks my neck. “That merman is irresistible.”

“So why don’t you want a pack?” Hunter asks as he glides his hand up and down my quickly stiffening length.

Phoenix sucks the tender skin where my shoulder meets my neck, and it’s too much, having both of their attention fully focused on me, their hands roaming my body, their mouths kissing me.

“Tell us,” Hunter commands. It’s not quite a bark, but the tone has me longing to obey.

“My mom died from bonding sickness after she lost her pack in one night,” I blurt out all in one breath.

Everything stops as my story sinks in. Phoenix sits back on his heels. Hunter lets go of my cock. I feel bereft without them touching me, but this is for the best. No matter how much my body wants to go along with what they’re proposing, I promised myself I would never join a pack. I’d never put myself in a position to experience what my mom went through. What Hunter is going through now.

“They were in a car accident coming back from a fundraiser event,” I whisper, sitting up and hugging my legs to my chest. “My mom stayed home with me, but… it didn’t matter. Her deterioration was fast. I tried to help her, to learn what I could about bonding sickness, but she died just a few months after they did.”

Before I know what’s happening, Hunter has picked me up and moved me into his lap. He leans back against the headboard, and Phoenix tucks himself next to us. My boyfriend rubs slow circles over my back and rests his head on Hunter’s shoulder.

They don’t try to argue with me. They know better than that. For a long while, we just go back to watching the movie and listening to the slow, steady fall of rain.

When the credits roll, none of us move to turn it off, and eventually the TV goes black on its own, plunging the room into darkness.

“I won’t promise you that what happened to your mom won’t happen to you,” Phoenix whispers. “We can’t make that kind of guarantee, but don’t you think the risk is worth it?”