Chapter 44
Chapter Forty-four
Cross
Sky blue.
Not regular blue.
The blue that hides behind and between the brightest clouds.
Parker's bright eyes blink at me once before they close in pleasure, his clawed fingertips digging into the soft flesh of Genie's hips.
My gaze slowly travels down the taut muscles straining beneath his skin, pausing on the familiar shallow thrusting of his hips.
Then Genie gasps my name and my eyes rush to meet hers where her head is resting against the pale green blanket I chose for her nest.
“Drew.” She sighs, her eyes rolling closed for the briefest moment. “Alpha.”
She reaches her hand toward me, beckoning, an invitation, and my feet carry me to her as our bond wraps itself tightly around me. I drop to my hands and knees when my toes brush against the first blanket and I crawl.
“Alpha,” she whispers again, eyes closed now.
“I'm here,” I say, pushing the words into our bond.
Her finger lifts to touch my jaw when I'm close enough for her to touch, but she's blissed out.
She's aware of me right now, obviously, but she's floating on the surface of the relief Parker has given her in the midst of her heat.
It's going to get worse for her. I can feel it.
This is her first heat with her alpha and it will be the most intense one she's ever experienced.
My vision is already beginning to fade around the edges as the haze of this heat closes in around me.
Still…
There is Parker.
With his wolf in his eyes and his cock deep inside my mate.
My mate, my wolf growls lowly.
I slowly rise to my knees. I will not risk her safety or ruin her first nest with me by fighting. He will give her to me. He has to. I'm his Alpha as much as hers. He will release her.
His too-blue eyes shine at me when I face him. He's beautiful right now, with waves of possession rolling off of him. Possession he has no right to.
I don't have to fight him to make him submit.
There are other ways, my wolf agrees, sending a shock wave through me.
I thought you weren't interested in fucking him? I send back.
He snorts. I'm not. But you are and that would be better for her than fighting right now.
My hand moves closer to him slowly, slipping behind his neck. Parker allows me to grip his neck firmly, no growling, no snarling, but when I go to kiss him, he jerks away from me.
Fine.
Just when my grip begins to tighten, he bends slightly, reaching down to drag Genie up onto her knees, her back tight against his chest. His hand, fingers twisted into her hair, turns her face towards me.
“Her,” he growls in a voice gone rough and unfamiliar. “Not me.” Followed by the word idiot along our bond which was likely shared unintentionally.
I almost smile. It has been years since his wolf last spoke to me like this.
We communicate along our bond regularly when we are both in our wolf form, but there is seldom need to when we are human.
But he's here now, apparently with all his sarcasm intact.
He pushes her forward just a little, and I move my hand from his neck to hers and hold his gaze as I pull her mouth to mine.
He doesn't fight me for possession of her and a small, quiet piece of me relaxes with the understanding that he isn't going to be a threat.
Genie's mouth is so soft against mine and she opens to me immediately, allowing me to lick inside and taste her.
She sighs, sliding one hand up my side and against my chest under my shirt.
“Off,” she says, the command raspy and muddled, and I do as I'm told, peeling my shirt over my head and then shoving my shorts off and toeing off my shoes.
Parker is still holding onto her tightly. His hips are still tilting gently, moving inside her with rhythmic, shallow thrusts. “Here,” I say, slotting my hands against hers over her hips. “I'll take her.”
His fingers dig into her and my gaze rushes to meet his. He shakes his head slowly. “Not yet. Won't be long.”
My eyes narrow. He isn't challenging me. I'd feel it. I'd smell it. But he isn't handing her over, either. Smell... What is that? “What won't be long, Parker?”
“His knot has to go down,” Genie answers dreamily.
Knot.
“What knot?”
Genie lets out a breathy laugh and leans against me, pushing her nose against my neck and drawing in my scent.
Parker doesn't laugh. His jaw ticks and he blinks to break our eye contact for a moment. His eyes are their normal blue when they open again.
“Show me,” I demand. Parker doesn't have a knot. He isn't an alpha. He has never had a knot. Something else must be happening. Something strange.
His brow raises, but he looks down at where his body meets Genie's, head tilting. “Let her down.”
She whines when I move away from her and help her lower her torso onto the nest, but only because it changed the angle of Parker inside her.
“Behind me,” he says through clenched teeth.
I get on my knees behind him and he leans against me, allowing me to see what he sees when he looks down.
Goddess. He's knotted her. Parker knotted my mate. Now my hands are gripping his hips, nails digging deep and angry.
“Parker.”
“Cross.”
“How?”
He swallows thickly and leans his head against my shoulder. “He said I didn't need it until now.”
He... “Your wolf.”
He nods. “This is,” he takes a trembling breath, “a lot to handle.”
“It's okay,” I tell him, relaxing my grip and sliding my hands around him. “I'm here.”
“What do we do, Cross?”
I slide one hand down his stomach, splitting my fingers to frame the base of his cock, pressing them against Genie's swollen, soaked entrance. He hisses and she sighs again. I can see it, his knot. Just the edge of it because she's clenching around him so tightly.
“Don't,” Parker breathes.
I grin. “You don't even know what I want to do.”
“You want to touch it,” he rasps. “While it's in her. Don't.”
“Why not? It would feel sooo gooood.” I emphasize the words by spreading my fingers just a bit.
“I might scream,” he says. “Or pass out.”
“Do it,” Genie purrs, the words slurring.
His hand snaps out to swat her hip gently. “Nobody asked you.” He rubs his palm against her skin where the small slap landed. “You'll scream or pass out, too, because if he touches it, I'll have to fuck you all over again.”
She wriggles her hips. “Do it, Drew. Wrap your fingers around it. Squeeze it.”
Laughter explodes from me at the horrified sound he makes.
“Don't, Cross. Really. Don't. I can't take it.”
I kiss his shoulder and remove my hand from between them. “I won't.” I nip the place I just kissed. “This time. How do you have a knot?Are you an alpha now? Is that what this means?”
He swallows and nods. “Apparently.”
“Latent.”
He nods again. “Because of her. For her.”
She sighs again and the scent of slick and Parker's cum fills the air around us, making me impossibly harder. “Oh, I love that.”
“What?”
“The scent of you and Genie together.”