16
knight
I STAND IN the doorway of the bedroom. Looks like I’m the only one not knotted into somebody.
She’s all splayed out on the carpet, face down, and he’s in her pussy, knotted in, and they look fucking perfect together. I just came like crazy, but I think I could get another knot if I stayed and look at them knotted together for too long.
Striker sits back on his knees, one hand casually cupping one of her rounded little ass cheeks, and looks down at the place where they’re joined. “So, weird thing about me,” he says, furrowing his brow. “I’m a priest.”
“You’re a what?” I say.
He laughs. He squeezes the handful of her ass he’s got. “I think… this can’t be my first time, because I checked into Cedar Falls for a rut, and that’s how I got like this. But this is the first time I remember having sex.”
I’m speechless.
“Seriously?” says Lotus. Her voice is kind of loose and sleepy. “This is your first time?”
“I’m glad I saved myself for you,” he says, rolling his hips against her.
She groans. “You can’t be a priest, Striker.”
“Father Striker,” I say, shaking my head. I look down the hallway at Arrow and the other alpha, the one who I just inexplicably mouth-fucked out of nowhere, the one who smells good.
Wait, no, I remember Lotus talking about him, saying that he was her alpha, too.
He definitely belongs with us. I can sense that.
He and Arrow are kissing, both on their knees. Arrow has his hand inside the other alpha’s shirt, running his hand over the other guy’s abs and pecks.
This makes my dick want to perk up, too, which is weird.
Because I’m not gay.
Except, I mean, look at them.
And I did just, you know, get a blow job from him, anyway.
But… it’s not as gay to get a blow job from a guy as it to, uh, give one. I run a hand over my face, letting out a long, low groan.
Arrow breaks the kiss and looks up at me. “Striker fucked my family’s door, didn’t he?”
“That’s definitely what we should be worrying about,” I say. “Definitely that.”
The guy with Arrow’s knot in his butt grins up at me. “Hi, I’m Calix Beckwith.”
“Yeah,” I say. “Striker was talking about you.”
“You guys prefer your hound names instead of your real names, then?” says Calix.
“No,” I say. “We just don’t remember our old names.”
“Oh,” says Calix. “Your name is Harrison Castiglio.” He turns to Arrow. “You’re Adam Coleman. And that’s Father Nicholas Butler back there with Audrey Jenkins.”
The name doesn’t ring a bell, though. It doesn’t feel like my name. It just feels like a name. I furrow my brow. “Weird.”
“Yeah,” says Arrow, affectionately touching Calix’s face. “That doesn’t feel like my name. But I don’t know if I’m that guy anymore. I was never into men before. And this is like… shit.”
Calix chuckles. “Yeah, well, your knot is probably my new favorite thing. Can we name your knot?”
Arrow laughs. “What would we name it? Your Lord and Master?”
“Sir,” agrees Calix, snickering. “Goddess, I love having you inside my ass, sir .”
Arrow kisses him roughly, affected by that.
I’m hard again. I suck a sharp breath into my nostrils and look back at Striker and Lotus.
He’s tracing little patterns on her spine, through her shirt, gazing down at her like she hangs the moon. Her eyes are closed and she’s humming, pleased.
She opens her eyes and looks at me, first at my hard cock and then up at my face. “Feeling left out, Knight?” she breathes. “I’ve got spare holes, you know.”
My mouth is dry. “Uh, we should… we should…” I’m freaked out, is the thing. I’m very freaked out right now. I’ve just had about five abundantly homosexual experiences, all of which hit me way differently than I thought they would, and my brain is exploding right now, and also, this isn’t normal.
You don’t just start fucking random guys who show up.
Not after they use a stun gun on you.
And not when you don’t even know their names.
“I know,” she says. “I’m scared, too.”
Striker huffs. “Are you, omega?”
“I’m okay, though. You’re not going to kill me.” A pause. “Right?” There’s a little hitch in her voice.
“Everyone,” says Striker’s voice, suddenly very deep and very firm. It resonates in my head, too loud, louder than my own voice, taking control of me. “I need you all to concentrate. We’re all going to deflate our knots, got it? Right fucking now.”
I gasp, staggering as I collide with the doorway, and I’m not turned on anymore, and no one else is either.
Calix gets up, tucking his dick away, putting his clothes in order. “That was good, Striker. A little intense. You’re lead, that’s obvious. We get it, and you probably don’t have to do it that hard. But… you guys… you grew up out here. You don’t know anything about packs, do you?”
I zip myself away, and without the arousal that was taking over my body, I just feel kind of panicky and frightened. “So, that’s what we are, is it?”
“We’re not just a pack,” says Calix. “We’re a scent-match.”
“What the fuck is that?” says Striker, coming to the doorway, buttoning himself away.
calix
IT’S REALLY TOO much to explain. I don’t even know where to start. I pace in front of them in the living room in this beach house in Belmont. Everyone is dressed now, and they all look sort of shell-shocked.
It surprises me how much it hurts to see them like that, how much it tugs at my own emotions. It shouldn’t surprise me, I suppose, because that’s the way bonds like this work. But it does, because it always weirds me out in some way, like it shouldn’t be so quick or so easy.
“You know, in most packs, it’s like any romantic connection anywhere. It’s a tentative thing that grows with time,” I say. “You feel a spark, and then you spend more time together, and then a bond grows out of your shared experiences. But with a scent-match it’s not like that.”
“Go back,” says Lotus. “Is it because we all smell the same? Is that it?”
“No, no,” I say. “It’s not that our scents match, as in, they’re the same scent, it’s more like…” I realize I don’t really know. “Honestly, I always thought this was just some kind of fairy tale. Growing up, we’d hear the stories.”
“You’re Polloi,” says Striker, looking me over.
“Oh, right, I guess I should have led with that,” I say, running a hand through my hair.
“You grew up in a pack?” says Lotus.
I nod.
“But I don’t totally get it,” says Arrow. “Because those packs, they’re huge, and they’ll include betas and stuff. But then, you hear people talking about packs, and it’s just an omega and a couple alphas or something. Or I even heard of one with two omegas. Is that real? Can that happen?”
I lift a finger. “Okay, hold on, that’s only a couple questions, but it’s a long answer. The first thing is that, uh, people do all kinds of things, but the tradition in the Polloi is one omega and one alpha, maybe more. There’s usually a pair, and if there are other people in the pack, they’re subservient to them. Like, with us, it’s Striker and Lotus.”
Both Arrow and Knight look at them.
“No way,” says Knight. “They’re not the main couple. We’re not just attachments to that.”
“No,” I say. “No, it’s not like that. We all belong together. But with this many people, there tend to be disputes, and the way that that gets solved is someone has to be in charge.”
“They’re the bosses of us?” says Knight, glaring at them.
Lotus hunches down her chin to her chest. “I don’t want to be—”
“Yes,” says Striker, staring Knight down.
Knight lets out a noisy breath. “Fuck,” he whispers. “So, that’s intense.”
“Yeah, he’s lead,” I say. “You feel it. You just feel it. It’s undeniable.”
“I don’t like it,” mutters Knight.
“Doesn’t matter. It’s still true,” I say.
“Fuck that,” says Lotus. “I don’t… I’m not…” She sighs.
“For what it’s worth, pretty thing,” says Knight, giving her a crooked smile, “you can be the boss of me any time at all, okay?”
She lets out a little laugh, shaking her head. “Okay? Does that make sense?”
“It does with alpha and omega logic,” I say, grinning at her. “You’re really in charge, you know. That’s the way it works. Omegas top it all.”
Her eyes widen and she shakes her head again, more forcefully.
“Anyway,” I say, “getting back to what I was saying, there’s two ways the Polloi use the word ‘pack.’ One is to refer to, uh, a mating group, I guess? And the other is to refer to a much bigger family group. It’s the same way people in the secular world call a mom and dad and kids a family, but then also call it family when it’s cousins and uncles and grandparents.”
“Right, like ‘extended family,’” says Arrow.
“Yes,” I say. “There’s the extended pack. Which is traced through the matrilineal line. From the Vasilissa, which is the matriarch omega of an extended pack.”
Arrow nods. “Okay, yeah, I know about this. You guys all live in big, uh, neighborhoods with your grandmothers forever.”
“You mean trailer parks,” I say. “Or compounds.” I shrug. “It’s okay. I got out. I’m not defending that place, not at all, and I don’t want to go back there.”
“But they’re right,” says Striker quietly. “About how we connect to each other as alphas and omegas. Aren’t they?”
“No,” I say. Then my shoulders sag. “Well, whatever they’re right about, they’re wrong about a lot of other things. My little beta sister Maggie got out before I did. When I was a kid, sometimes we didn’t have a lot of food. Instead of dividing it up evenly, certain sorts of people got more while others went hungry. As an alpha, I always got fed. My little sister, a beta? She did not. That’s fucked up. I always thought so, so I used to give her my food, and then we’d all get in trouble.”
Striker flinches.
“Yeah, and getting in trouble is a different thing in a pack,” I say, raising my eyebrows. “Corporal punishment? Big thing. And it’s done to adults, like, all the fucking time. I cannot tell you the number of times I saw one of my dads get beaten by one of my other dads, usually at the behest of my mom. Who, even as the head of everything, took her share of belts from her alphas when they decided she needed correction. The whole place is fucked up, you understand?”
“I do,” says Lotus. “I really, really do, which is why I’m not going to be the boss of anyone. Everyone can just be the boss of themselves.”
I sigh. Yeah, well, I would like to agree with her. A week ago, I did agree with her. But everything’s different now, and I know it. She is the boss of me. Like I said, it’s undeniable.
It’s quiet.
I sit down on the couch and rest my elbows on my knees and bury my face in my hands. I try to breathe. I don’t really want to say any of that aloud.
“Uh, this scent match thing, it makes us all want to fuck each other?” says Knight.
“Yeah,” I say, not taking my face out of my hands.
“I didn’t want to fuck anyone except the omega until you showed up,” mutters Knight.
Arrow snorts.
“I didn’t,” says Knight, very defensive.
I lift my head. “Are we doing that, then? I have to admit, I didn’t grow up with a real idea of sexual orientation. In the Polloi, people are just sexual. Heats and ruts can become real free-for-alls. Obviously, you’re related to everyone you live with, but it’s not uncommon to invite members of other packs. And since paternity is just… well, no one ever really knows about that, no one fucking cares that much.”
“So, you’ve been gay for your whole life,” says Knight.
“I mean… I kind of think it’s weird to have, like, a preference,” I say. “I just think everyone is naturally bisexual, I guess.”
Knight makes a face.
“You’re just weirded out because you were in the fucking mafia,” says Arrow. “I mean, can your masculinity get more toxic?”
“Shut up,” says Knight. He rounds on Striker. “You’re really a fucking priest?”
“Yeah,” says Striker quietly. “Yeah, that’s very, very fucking weird.”
“You say ‘fuck?’” says Knight.
“Apparently,” says Striker. He turns to me. “We’re getting out into the weeds, though, aren’t we? What’s a scent match?”
“It just means that we’re bonded,” I say. “I mean, we’re not, really, totally, until we do the bites—”
“I knew there were bites!” interrupts Knight, pumping his fist into the air.
Lotus makes a little noise. “So, that is true? You’re all going to bite me?”
I look at her and want to bite her, want it so much that it’s hard to even talk. My voice comes out all thick and affected. “You’ll like it, omega. You’ll really like it.”
She shudders and perfumes and that makes everyone grunt.
I get up from the couch, rubbing the back of my neck. “We react to each other’s scent, obviously. You guys get it. You know what you feel. It’s less like the way you feel about a romantic partner and more like how you feel about blood. You feel for scent-matches like you feel for a parent or a child or a sibling or something. You’ve never met the person, but from the moment you scent them, you know you’d do anything to protect them. You know that you… love them.” My voice cracks.
“We don’t even know each other,” says Arrow faintly.
“We really don’t,” says Lotus. “Where are these bites going to be?”
“Mine’s going to be wherever I want to put it on you,” says Knight gruffly.
Lotus sucks in a breath. “Not if I tell you not to.”
Knight huffs, rolling his head on his shoulders. “You won’t tell me that.”
“But you will obey me,” says Lotus, and there’s something cold and regal and downright omega about her tone.
I get hard hearing it.
We all must, because Striker barks again and makes my cock deflate.
Lotus blushes. She wrinkles up her nose. “I don’t even know where that came from. I keep feeling like there are two of me—the omega side of me and the other part of me. I keep feeling entirely out of control when the omega part takes over.”
I grimace. Honestly, one of the things I always hated about the way I was raised was how people were always using their designations as excuses. I always used to say that it wasn’t like that, that people were in control of themselves, regardless of whether they were alphas or omegas.
But since this scent-match business, everything’s felt different for me. And whatever the hell just happened when I got here, it sure didn’t feel like a rational choice to be double-penetrated by two men I don’t even know.
“Talk about the bites,” says Striker to me quietly. “I know a little about this, I think, but the way it’s always reported on, it’s taken to be proof that alphas and omegas shouldn’t engage in sexual activity together, because it becomes dangerous and barbaric.”
I know that’s what they think out here. And I have to admit that sex with a beta is not even remotely barbaric, but, uh, maybe it’s the barbarous parts of sex that make it hot? I don’t know. Truth is, before all this, I hadn’t gotten that far. All I wanted to do was suppress my ruts so that I didn’t have to have sex if I didn’t want to.
But the thought of going into a rut with Lotus sounds amazing, I have to admit. I think about her body under Striker’s, the curve of her bare ass, the way her little omega pussy was stretched around his knot, and I imagine it’s mine in there.
My scent rises and Striker glares at me.
“Uh, right,” I say. “About the bites. They’re mating bites. They bond us together. When we’ve all bitten our omega, we’ll be able to feel each other in the bond, which means that we can get a sense of each other’s emotions and we can feel each other’s pleasure, stuff like that. With a scent match, I’ve heard it’s even more intense, that we’ll be practically able to read each other’s minds or something. But, keep in mind, it’s all folklore, so I don’t know how much of it is real and how much is made up.”
“Do we bite each other, or just the omega?” says Striker, looking me over.
“Uh, we can bite each other,” I say. “Doesn’t work in the same way, exactly, but an alpha bite, if we’re properly worked up, will scar like a bonding mark, if we do it on anyone, including on betas.”
“Hmm,” says Striker, shifting his weight on the couch. He’s still looking at me.
“You want to bite me, then?” I say, grinning at him. I’m flirting. It feels natural to flirt with my mates. It feels fucking good. I have to admit that as crazy and as uncomfortable as this situation is, there’s something about all of us being together that makes me feel settled in a way I’ve never felt, as if I’ve been searching my whole life for the others, and now that we’re here together, I can stop. I’m safe now. I belong now. I’m with my pack.
“Maybe,” says Striker, grinning at me. He’s flirting, too.
“Oh,” says Lotus, sitting up straight. “Well, that’s…”
“Yeah,” breathes Arrow. “That’s fun.”
“What is?” I say.
“Don’t we get jealous?” says Arrow.
“Uh, not within the pack,” I say. “But if one of us flirts with someone outside of the pack? Well, let’s just say I’ve seen people get knifed over it.”
“If, um, you bite him, do I get to watch?” says Lotus, dragging her top teeth over her bottom lip.
“Oh, I want you to watch,” I tell her.
“Good,” she says. She looks out at us. “I guess this answers some questions I had.”
“Like what?” says Knight, who’s still grimacing.
“Well, I was worried that it would be, like, me getting fucked while the three of you waited your turn, but I’m glad that, uh, you’ll be able to keep busy amongst yourselves.”
Knight looks at me, and he’s still grimacing, but there’s a lustful thread of possession in there, and I grin at him, accepting it. Yeah, I sucked your dick and you liked it, I say with my little grin.
Knight actually blushes. He turns his gaze back on Lotus. “When do we do it?”
“Do what?” says Arrow.
“The bites,” says Knight.
“We should wait,” I say immediately.
“As soon as possible,” says Striker at the same time. He’s stunned and turns to look at me. “We should wait?”
“It’s intense, that level of bonding,” I say. “We should take our time. We’ve gone too fast already. I mean, I just met you two, and I’ve already had Arrow’s knot, and that’s usually not something you just do. You work up to a knot. It’s a big, invasive thing. I’ve only been knotted by another guy, like, once, and it was a big deal. To have just done that, it’s…”
“Agreed,” says Lotus. “I mean, I don’t know about knotting, really, or biting, or any of it, but it’s all too fast.”
Striker considers. “I see what you’re saying.”
“Anyway, it’d be nice to do that in a proper nest somewhere,” I say. “It’d be nice to do that when we’re not worried about Cedar Falls trying to kill you guys.”
“Nest,” breathes Lotus, her voice catching with longing on the word.
Everyone turns to look at her, that tone having wrenched our insides.
“Yeah, pretty girl,” I say softly, “you need a nest.”
“I don’t even know what that means,” she says. “But I know I was trying to make one in the facility. I know I was always gathering things here and there to make a nest, and that you guys would take them when I was sleeping.” Her tone is accusatory.
I wince.
She gets up off the couch. “And I don’t think I should go anywhere with you alphas, actually. Because what seems to always happen is that no one remembers, least of all me, that I shouldn’t trust you.”
“You can trust us, omega,” says Striker in a low, resonant voice. It’s a voice that makes me feel as if I’ve been wrapped in the warmest, thickest quilt. I feel heavy and sleepy and good. I trust him. With my damned life.
She shakes her head. “No, don’t do that with your voice, stop it.”
“I’m not doing anything,” counters Striker.
“Are we forgetting how we got into this mess?” She gestures at the TV. “She was on the TV, and you all lost it and you attacked me.”
“But we didn’t hurt you,” says Arrow. “We just tried to fuck you.”
Lotus touches her face, and all of us look to see the mark there. It looks like a rug burn.
Striker gets to his feet and touches her there.
She jerks away, shaking her head. “Ouch.”
Striker sighs heavily. “I wasn’t trying to kill you, but I was out of control.” He turns to me. “Do we understand why all this is happening? When I met you, Calix, I couldn’t talk, and I didn’t remember anything about myself, and now?”
“It’s something to do with the scent match,” I say. “But no, I don’t know exactly.” I fold my arms over my chest. “And I don’t know what Lotus means, exactly. Are you guys really trying to kill her? I know you were trained to kill omegas, but she’s—you can’t… right?”
“Oh, they could,” says Lotus.
“We won’t,” says Striker, firm.
“And I’m just supposed to believe you?” said Lotus. “One day, we’ll be out walking, and someone will be talking to their dog or something, and you guys will get triggered. She’ll pop back up on the screen sometime or I’ll say something, like I did in the hotel—”
“What’s the trigger?” I say.
Striker shakes his head. “We don’t even really know. But she’s right. It’s a problem.”
“I don’t think it could be possible to kill your scent match,” I say. “Or if you did it, it would royally fuck you up. I can’t even imagine it.”
“You don’t think it would be possible,” said Lotus. “But you don’t know.”
“You weren’t…” Striker raises his eyebrows. “You were consenting to that. You were enthusiastically consenting, vocally begging me—”
“I know,” she says. “But that was just the omega part of me, don’t you get it? There was another part of me that was terrified and wanted it to stop, but that part of me couldn’t even break the surface. I was taken over by the other part of me.”
“Just like we were,” says Arrow with a sigh. “We were all taken over by it.”
I nod. I know what they’re talking about. “Yeah, me too.”