Chapter 52
FIFTY-TWO
ROGUE
Thistle’s heat was the most exhausting, thrilling, and hottest thing I’d ever done. It was nothing like the last time, when I was on my own and she’d been afraid.
It was the third day, and I thought we were managing quite well until Thistle decided regular heat wasn’t good enough.
After a nap, I woke up with a headache from dehydration, since this was a marathon.
I was filling a cup of water to hydrate my Omega when I heard a thump and a growl. I hurried out to see Ace had bowled over Knox. They were wrestling across the floor.
Thistle was on her front, propped on her elbows, hearts practically bouncing in her eyes as she watched them.
“ What is going on?” I asked, bewildered. I crossed the room, setting the cup on the side table as Ace let out a growl, leaving Knox in the dust to launch at me instead.
Was he feral?
“Bring him back,” I growled, trying to throw him off. Ace was having none of it, his fist closing around my wrist.
“No!” Thistle said, and there was a real bratty spark in her eyes that put me on full alert.
“Why?” Knox staggered to his feet. As he did, she scrambled upright, unsteady on the bed.
“You gotta fight for me like Gladiators!” she declared, fists punching out dramatically, her slender body in nothing but lace, dishing out manic hormones that were still flooding the whole room.
I’m sorry, what?
My Alpha hackles rose.
She was my Omega, and she was in fucking heat. I’d?—
The thought cut off as a wild-eyed Ace managed to rip free and clamp a hand on my throat.
I growled, trying to toss him back.
Thistle squealed as Knox lunged for her, and Ace reacted like lightning.
His blue eyes were wild as he spun, tearing free of me and diving after Knox.
Thistle looked delighted as they returned to sparring, then caught my eye. My hind brain was locked on the way she was scrambling back.
Prey.
I tried to circle the bed to get to her on the other side, but Ace was relentless, changing from Knox to me like a rabid guard dog.
I couldn’t tell if she was able to instruct him what to do, or if this was just his fucked up way of protecting her.
We still had way too much to unpack when it came to this heat bonding.
“Doll!” Knox snarled, trying to shove Ace back. “Bring him back.”
“Nope, nope, nope.”
She was looking between me and them, ready to dart away the moment I pounced. Her eyes glittered with insanity as she took in the chaos.
There was a crash to my side as the other two hit the foot of the bed.
“Doll—Ah, fuck it!” Knox snarled.
I froze, spinning back to them.
Had he just…?
Well.
Damn.
He’d just challenged Ace for pack lead—when she was in the middle of heat.
Dumb fuck.
Well, I’d claim her while they—the air shifted; what had been a messy scuffle suddenly turned dangerous, Knox pinning a feral Ace to the rug.
Uh… I froze.
Was Knox going to win ?
Wait.
The whole fight suddenly became a lot less funny.
I launched toward them at once, mind hazy with the crazed hormones she was giving out.
Me and Knox clashed plenty, and he sometimes made it even with how vicious he could be, but with the threat of him claiming pack lead, it wasn’t a contest. I ripped them apart in a second, ramming Knox against the corner of the room, Ace’s neck in my other fist.
There was no way I would let Knox win.
“Did you join?” Thistle asked, sounding way too excited.
“Bring him back, Kitten,” I growled.
“No.”
“Let it go!” I snarled at Ace, shaking him.
I could feel his hold on pack lead in the bond—one Knox was fighting for, and now me.
Not that I fucking wanted it, but Knox would strut around like a peacock with an Emmy if he managed to wrestle it from Ace.
My sanity couldn’t deal with that.
Ace looked wild, and I could tell there was no way he’d give it up without a massive push. In my other fist, Knox was prying my fingers from his neck, slowly but surely. I sighed and lifted Ace easily with one hand. With a massive CRASH! I slammed him through the huge window of her nest.
Luckily, it was the type of glass that sprayed outward in a million little beads, leaving him with just a few cuts across his face and arms as he clung to me.
I heard Thistle yelp behind me, but I didn’t let go.
These two idiots had started this fight—I was going to fucking end it.
Ace snarled, eyes wide as he grabbed at my arm, but I didn’t release him, holding him in the air a storey off the ground—and this mansion had high ceilings.
Knox had stopped fighting, staring between me and Ace in shock.
“Let it go!” I demanded.
“Rogue!” Thistle whined, trying to climb on my back.
“ShadowRogue,” I corrected her, not taking my eyes from the weasel still struggling in my grip.
She managed, with a leap, to scramble onto me, arms wrapped around my neck. Her moonflower scent was thick in the air, her heat still present if not overwhelming.
“ShadowRogue,” she amended. “I still need to be fucked real good, so you can’t actually drop him… uh… Right?”
I snorted. “Tell him to let go of pack lead.”
Her legs tangled around my waist. “Bunny…” She sounded pouty. “You should probably do it…”
I couldn’t tell if he was still feral or if she’d reeled him in, but in the next second he yielded.
I felt the weight of pack lead hit me in the bond. Not a lot changed, but I did feel more… in control.
Powerful.
Huh.
It was even more apparent as I looked between the two pricks I was still holding in my fists. Knox looked perfectly sour.
I dragged Ace back into the room and tossed him to the ground.
“You can let me go now,” Knox hissed, still prying at my grip.
I turned to him, flexing the dominance I’d just found in the bond and crushing him against the wall by his neck a little tighter, the full force of pack lead saturating each word. “You, Knox, are going to get rid of the guardianship and give me a fucking bank account.”
He said nothing, stubbornness shooting through the bond.
“Any Alpha who wants to argue with me can stay chained up for the rest of her heat and watch while I fuck her senseless.”
There was a long pause.
“Fine,” Knox hissed at last.
I smiled, releasing him, dusting my hands off as Thistle dropped from my back.
Knox coughed, rubbing his neck. Even Ace was giving me a look of surprise.
I turned back to Thistle to find her mouth hanging open. She stared up at me in shock, a glint of awe in her eyes.
“Kitten.”
“Uh… huh.” Her eyes darted between me, Knox, and Ace.
“On the bed now, present for me.”
“Yes Alpha.” She ran so fast to the bed that she almost tripped.
ACE
The nest now had a fresh morning breeze sweeping in through the shattered window.
Thistle was pressing her cheek to the sheets, wiggling her cute little ass in the air as Rogue dropped onto the bed behind her.
I’d… lost pack lead.
What the fuck?
I’d never been in a pack without lead.
I shared a sour look with Knox.
But Rogue was just too damned big to fight.
I scowled, hating how hard I got in an instant at the noise Thistle made as Rogue drove into her. He looked like a monster compared to her. It was hard not to hone in on that, or how she took him so fucking well.
Previous heats were never like this. She’d never been so eager—and there was something else. As if she had surrendered to the heat. As if she trusted us. And I wasn’t ready for how that was like a drug for my Alpha hormones.
I wiped a small bead of blood from my cheek and shook shards of glass from my hair.
Still, it was hard to take my eyes off them when her heat was still heavy in the room.
Knox crossed to the side of the bed and grabbed his phone.
“What are you doing?” I demanded.
Texting while my—our—Omega was in heat?
“I’m telling the Misfits to stay away from this half of the garden.”
Ah.
I snorted as Thistle let out another loud moan. Looking back I saw Rogue had locked her against him with his knot. She was panting, eyes crossed with an orgasm as she searched the room, landing on us.
He was locked into her tight cunt from behind—the selfish prick.
She wanted us, and with Rogue’s oversized form at her back, there was only one way. I glanced at Knox whose phone was hanging loosely in his hand as he realised at the same time as I did.
Two of us, only one hole?—
No fucking way.
I launched for Thistle right as he did.
KNOX
It was the fourth day of her heat, and Ace and Thistle were in the shower—still going at it.
I hadn’t expected Ace to out-stamina either of us, but the combination of psychopath and feral made him insatiable when it came to Thistle.
I think we were reaching the end of it, though. Her hormones were settling, and exhaustion was creeping in to fill the gaps.
Rogue looked dazed as he slumped back onto the bed. “That…” he said. “Was not like last time.”
“Last time—you mean when it wasn’t a real heat?” I snorted.
I understood, though. I was wrecked. Good wrecked, but I felt like every muscle in my body was about to give out. I let my head fall back, chest still heaving, trying to catch my breath.
After a while, Rogue glanced at me. “I’m glad you’re not dead,” he said. “Just so you know.”
I huffed. “No way the two of you would have coped without me.”
He barked a laugh, shaking his head. Then he froze. “Do you think we… kept up?”
“What do you mean?”
“We were good enough, right?”
“I lost count of her orgasms after thirty,” I said. “I think we passed.”
It wasn’t long before Ace carried a very sleepy, naked Thistle out of the bathroom.
Her eyes were dazed and glittering with happiness as she looked around at us. Okay, so we might be wiped, but if she asked, I’d pounce in a second. I could see Rogue tensing, ready too.
“That was… amazing,” she said with a yawn.
It seemed her heat was finally over.
She sluggishly tried to burrow beneath the blankets, but her arms gave out. Ace lifted the duvet for her, and she rolled in with a happy sigh. She wriggled until only her head was visible, then patted Ace on the leg appreciatively before passing out.
With that signal, I dropped off just as fast.
I slept for a full day.
Rogue and Thistle were still passed out when I finally staggered from her nest. I couldn’t even say I was mad that he’d won the pack lead fight. I think I was more pleased it wasn’t Ace’s than anything else—of all of us, he was the most insufferable when smug.
I turned on my phone, checking notifications, and it wasn’t long before I was fully awake scrolling through updates and reading every email before leaving the nest.
Mirage—my contact thanks to Thistle—had managed to reach Doyle in time. He’d saved him before Carrion’s men could kill him.
That unwound my stress—the last thing I’d been worried about.
I found Ace in the kitchen, making tea.
“You recover alright?” I asked.
He nodded, scrolling on his phone.
Well, he wasn’t a small-talk kind of guy, but that was fine by me. I had business to get to. “The Ring is in chaos—Vance mentioned they’re scattering.”
“I’m doing damage control—and those Misfits aren’t bad,” he said.
I considered that, feeling the smile creeping onto my face. “I have a proposal.”
Ace cocked his head, mug pausing midair. “Yes?”
It was something that would draw on all the years of intel I’d been collecting from Doyle. Each act of evil we found evidence of Doyle had handed it over with the words: ‘Do your worst, Knox.’
Many had already fled across state lines or to other countries—the larger case we were building had fallen apart.
For him, at least.
For me?
For the first time, the shackles were off. Before, Doyle had been the best resource I had to make a dent, but now I had the money, the connections, and this time… well, I might even have a team.
“A game,” I said.
Ace eyed me, though there was a spark of curiosity lighting his ice-blue gaze. “A… game?”
“One you were born for.”
“I’m listening.”
“I don’t just want them running, Ace. I want them looking over their shoulders as they get picked off one by one. I want them to feel every single thing they did to others. And I want no place, no matter how far, to be safe for them.”
I felt him for a moment in the bond—a spark of anticipation as he realised what I was suggesting.
I grinned. “The hunt is on.”