Chapter 43
Chapter Forty-Three
brIELLE
T he room is dark when I wake, covered in my favorite blanket and surrounded by the pillows that I usually pull off my bed before actually going to sleep. I slowly sit up, a headache forming behind my eyes that echoes my heartbeat. Is it a headache? The throbbing pulse moves lower, until my nipples ache with it.
I groan and tip my head back, trying to remember how I even got back to my nest. I’d been on a ride with Caleb, hadn’t I? Lavender floods the room, and the soreness between my legs blooms into a need that’s the same as the pulsating current webbing out through the rest of my body. Definitely not my heartbeat. It pulses in my belly, and I crumble, shrieking with the sudden ache of it.
A door clicks open, and cinnamon surrounds me.
I swallow, trying to wet my mouth.
“Omega?” Caleb’s warm voice cocoons me as a set of strong hands cup my face and tilt my head. “Sweetheart?”
When I open my eyes, Caleb’s blue eyes greet me, worry and heat equal measures in his gaze. That need pulses in my belly again, and I cry out, grabbing his arms to keep myself steady.
My voice shakes. “What?—”
He kisses me, soft and warm and comforting. I collapse against him even as my scent surges around us. It feels like its own living thing at this point. My nipples are so sensitive, my thighs clench as they brush along his shirt.
“You’re in heat, sweetheart,” Caleb says against my lips, wrapping an arm around my waist and laying me out on the bed, the pillows surrounding me. They smell of mint, and it makes my need ratchet tighter.
“Heat?” I ask.
Is that what this is? The burning need through my body is way worse than anything I’ve ever felt—not that I’ve actually ridden out a heat. I’ve always opted to be sedated through them under the supervision of a doctor approved by the Council.
“Please.” It comes out as an honest-to-God beg, but I don’t have it in myself to apologize.
A haze falls over me as he pulls away and strips out of his clothes. What little sense of where I am, what I’m doing, falls to the wayside under it. Another cramp seizes me, and I whimper. I want to curl up on my side to try and hide from the pain. A firm hand on my hip keeps me immobile, though.
“It hurts, Alpha,” I sob, tears spilling over my lashes. The trails they leave are hot on my cheeks.
He kisses them away as he settles over me. His arms brace around my head as his hands thread through my hair. The heat of his body has anticipation coursing through me. Like it knows the heat is what will make the pain go away, will make the horrible cramps stop. Cinnamon surrounds me, and the gut-wrenching fear fades away under its presence.
“I know, Omega,” he says as he enters me, as soft and comforting as his kiss. It lessens some of the ache low in my belly. “I’ll make it better, sweetheart. Let me take away the pain.”
I wrap my legs around his hips, keeping him as close as I can. My arms wrap around his neck. My nails dig into his skin. He claims me as thoroughly as he ever has, his pace never faltering. My body tightens around him. His lips run down my throat and across my shoulder in a circuit. They barely touch, but it feels like I’ve been branded. Need sweeps through me, a fire in winter, blazingly hot.
“ Please .” I’m not asking for his knot but something deeper, stronger. Unbreakable.
Yes, that’s what I need .
My Alpha pulls his lips away, and I cry out. I dig my hands into his hair, trying to bring him back to me.
“Alpha,” I sob.
His teeth scrape along the sensitive skin of my throat, just under my ear, like he’s tracing something. It takes too long to remember the tattoo. Is he tracing the feathers? He grunts, biting me hard enough to hurt, and then his knot locks us together, and I’m falling over the crest of my orgasm, every irrational thought gone from my mind as sensation roars through my veins. The blistering waves take away all thoughts of pain and aches and need.
“Good job, sweetheart.” His voice is a caress on my bruised skin. “Sleep now. Let it take the pain away.”
His voice is so warm, so light. It’s impossible to resist his quiet command. He traces my chin as I fade away into oblivion.
CALEB
The sun is just cresting the horizon when I startle awake, knocking one of the fifteen thousand pillows Brielle has to the ground. It feels like I’ve been hit by a damn truck, but that’s to be expected when we’re going into day seven of Brielle’s heat. A door swings open as I slowly sit up.
Ethan’s dressed in a set of dark gray sweats. Small droplets of water are splattered around the waistband. With a hard sigh, he runs a towel over his hair before tossing it into the second basket Beau swung by on Tuesday, the one we’ve been using for the non-essential linens. The other one is full of the last round of blankets that we haven’t gotten a chance to put through the wash.
“You want anything to eat?” Ethan’s voice is rough. When he looks at me, his eyes are red and there’s dark circles under them. “I was going to throw something together while she’s still out of it. And then maybe try to catch another nap out on the couch.”
We’ve only been managing a couple hours between her waves. It hasn’t really left a whole lot of time for sleeping or eating. It’s a hell of a lot different getting an Omega through one of these with only two of us, that’s for damn sure. I haven’t been this exhausted since Camden was a newborn. Or maybe when he was cutting his first set of molars. That was a rough couple weeks.
“I’m good,” I say with a quick shake of my head. “Go try to get some rest.”
He starts toward the bedroom door, nodding once, when Brielle stirs beside me. She turns toward me and burrows into my side with the precision of a damn scent dog. Her hand digs into my thigh, her nails biting through the set of boxers I wear. And then she perfumes, the lavender overpowering the air filter we have running in the corner.
Ethan grunts and pauses, swinging his gaze toward her.
I ignore him, focusing on Brielle as she slowly rises onto her knees, her eyes half-lidded and her lips pushed into a heavy pout. Her hands tremble as she hooks her fingers into the waistband of my boxers and tries to push them down my hips.
“Alpha,” she says, whining when they don’t budge. She pushes again and sighs when she manages to wrap her hand around my hardening dick. “Need you.”
Her voice has gone all sultry. I push up into her hold, letting my head fall back.
“You have me, Omega,” I mutter.
She straddles me, and I shimmy the underwear just low enough that it frees my cock. She slides onto me, not hesitating for even a heartbeat. Her hands flex on my shoulders, her eyes still mostly closed. Her lavender envelops us, gaining even more potency.
Her movements gain a desperate edge, and so I hold her hips and fuck up into her, trying to keep her in the position she’s most responsive to. Tears line her lashes after a moment, though, and my breath catches in my throat.
Oh shit. Did I hurt her?
“Brielle?” I ask, slowing everything between us. “Sweetheart, are you all right?”
She shakes her head. “Mint.”
Shit. She needs more than just me. I look over her shoulder. Ethan’s eyes are wide, his hand clutching the threshold of the door so tight his knuckles are white.
“You need Ethan, too, sweetheart?” I ask in a low croon. She rocks her hips and then mewls, dropping her head back. A tear falls down her cheek. I force an edge to my voice, a bite of command. “Omega, tell me what you need.”
“Mint,” she says again. She palms my neck and pulls me closer, shuddering in a breath when my lips trace her collarbone. “Bite.”
Yeah, not a snowball’s chance in hell I bite her right now. I didn’t when she first dropped into her heat, and I sure as hell am not going to fuck that up now.
“Mint,” she says again, her voice turning petulant.
Ethan curses, and then he pads across the room, his footsteps nearly silent. He strips out of the sweatpants, leaving them in a pile at the foot of the bed, and then eases behind her.
She squeals in sudden excitement, palming his hip and forcing him closer. His eyes are locked on me, though.
“Have you…” His voice trails off.
When I shake my head, he curses again. Brielle whines.
“Fuck. If she hasn’t…” He blows out a breath. “This is not the time to try it, that’s for damn sure.”
“Maybe you just touching her will be enough,” I offer. I hold Brielle’s hips, forcing her completely still, and then drop onto my back so Ethan feels like he has more room.
Ethan kisses her shoulder, letting his teeth graze her skin. His fingers play with her nipples, pulling them until they’re tight buds and her skin is awash in goosebumps. She clenches around me, slick sliding down my dick, and I groan.
“Yeah, fuck, that might be enough,” I grunt.
Ethan nods and then bites her again. She shakes in our combined hold, falling forward, only managing to catch herself at the last moment with a hand splayed just to the side of my head. He follows her, easing his arm under hers until she grabs him instead of the bed sheet. Her head tilts back, her throat rippling with her swallow.
“Please,” she whispers. “Oh God, please. Please.”
I fuck up into her, falling into the feel of her body and the sound of her voice and the way her lavender scent wraps around me in a way that feels so fucking perfect. It blends with my cinnamon and Ethan’s mint, making the entire room smell like the perfect blend of English cottage and winter forest.
Ethan wraps his free arm around her hip and circles her clit with quick, soft touches. She shakes and cries out, her body going stiff and then limp. I stop holding back the orgasm sitting at the base of my spine. I push into her, forcing my knot as deep as I can, and it rips through me, robbing me of my vision. Her voice breaks on a second desperate scream, and Ethan mutters another ragged curse.
“Shit, I haven’t come like that since I was a goddamn teen,” he admits.
I can’t help but laugh, and it has Brielle whimpering.
Ethan guides her head back onto his shoulder, combing through some of her unruly hair. Her breathing slowly steadies as her body relaxes around my knot. After a minute, she blows out a breath and looks down at me, her cheeks flushed a gorgeous dark red.
“Oh my god,” she whispers, suddenly entirely lucid. The edge in her lavender fades away even as she perfumes anew. “This is so fucking embarrassing.”
Ethan laughs behind her, letting his hand move away from her clit and onto her hip.
“It’s all right, princess.”
She flushes. He twists a strand of hair around his finger before letting it fall across her chest.
None of us say anything else until my knot finally releases.
“Do you want waffles?” Ethan asks her, his lips brushing her temple. Her cheeks flush, and she nods once. He trails his hand up her side. “Let Caleb get you cleaned up while I make some.”