Chapter 27 – BELLS #2
I decide not to tell them exactly who I am. The odds of them digging like Rex did are low. Phoenix is just not the type at all, and I'm pretty sure Rafael would get distracted ten minutes into his research. Rex is the one who's easy to imagine feverishly hunting internet archives, not them.
Phoenix's lip curls, and for a moment, all golden retriever energy burns away. "And he's been blackmailing you ever since, making you sing for us."
"But you're sure he still thinks you're a beta?" Rafael asks.
I nod. "He must think that, yeah, or he'd be telling me he has even more dirt on me than he previously thought. But I have my own gun to his head. A gun I feel guilty about, which is a pain in the fucking ass."
"Which is…?" Rafael asks carefully.
"I've seen his face," I mutter.
Phoenix's eyes widen slightly, but he quickly schools his face into a neutral expression. "Oh."
Rafael blows a puff of air through his nose and rolls his eyes. "Yeah, well, he could stop the war any time. And he hasn't. So that's on him, not you."
I groan, pressing my fingers into my temples.
"I know, but fuck, Raf, I don't want to run to the press to tell them how the lead guitarist of the band I'm in has a scarred face and that's why he wears a mask and feels like shit all the time.
I will if I have to, but I don't want to.
I'm not that kind of person. I don't want to be that kind of person. "
Rafael and Phoenix are both silent for a long time. Phoenix chews the inside of his cheek before speaking. "I don't think Rex is, either."
I arch an eyebrow. "You can't be serious. He acts like a supervillain."
Phoenix drags a hand through his blond mane.
"Yeah, well, he also beats the fuck out of predators.
He's like a wolf that only eats other wolves.
He's… unhinged, and yeah, maybe he's insane, too, but putting someone vulnerable in danger?
" He sighs. "Actually, if he knew you're an omega, you might be safer. "
"Another point for him being in denial, I guess. But telling him that secret isn't exactly a risk I want to take," I manage to croak with a stiff laugh.
As if on fucking cue, another wave crashes through me, stronger than the last. My back arches off the nest and a sound tears from my throat that I barely recognize as my own. My core throbs again like someone shoved hot coals into me, my body demanding something I've never let it have.
A knot.
An alpha's knot.
And two of my scent matches sit right here, smelling better than anything has a right to smell.
"Okay," I hear myself say, pushing my drenched hair back from my face. I can practically feel my clammy skin flushing red. "Okay. This is how it's going to go."
Rafael straightens immediately. Phoenix goes very still.
"I want Rafael to fuck me first," I continue, suddenly too awkward about this to even look at them. "While I suck Phoenix off. And I want to think about what you were doing to each other in the other room to cope with my scent."
Rafael's low growl in response cuts off into a choking sound I can't help but snicker at. Phoenix's pupils dilate so fast I watch it happen in real time.
"Are you sure?" Phoenix asks carefully.
I nod. "This is all me. Not the heat, not the chemicals—me.
I want you both. The only thing is… it has to be no strings attached.
I mean it. And if it makes me a terrible person for using my scent matches to get through this nightmare without promising anything in return, then fine.
I'm terrible. But I'm also in pain and desperate and you're both right here and I can smell what I do to you. "
Rafael's breathing has gone rough. "Bells—"
Phoenix shifts closer, one large hand cupping my face with devastating gentleness. "Tell us what you need."
What I need.
What I need is for this heat to stop turning my insides into molten lava. What I need is for my stalker to disappear into the void. Preferably a deep, dark pit full of hungry piranhas. What I need is for Rex not to hate me when he finds out I'm his scent match.
But what I can have right now is this. Them. Two alphas who smell like home and safety and everything my inner omega has ever wanted. Not just my inner omega, either.
Me.
"Strip," I tell them, surprised by how steady my voice comes out. "Both of you. Now."
They move together, a synchronized dance of fabric and skin. Rafael's shirt hits the floor first, revealing bronzed muscle and that gorgeous kraken tattoo. Phoenix follows, that comfortable bulk and strength I've been trying not to gape at for weeks now fully on display.
Then pants. Underwear. Until they're both naked and hard and looking at me like I'm the most treasured, perfect thing in the entire world instead of a sweaty disaster currently melting into a nest made of hotel blankets and towels.
"Come here," I tell Rafael, spreading my legs in clear invitation.
He doesn't hesitate. Just crawls onto the bed, settling between my thighs with careful reverence like he's kneeling at the altar of a dark cult. His hands are warm on my hips, thumbs tracing circles that make me shiver and squirm at his touch.
"You're sure?" he asks again, and I can see how much it costs him to check. How badly he wants to just take what I'm offering.
"I'm sure. More fucking, less talking and checking. I don't need you guys to be gentle." When Phoenix looks like he's going to ask me to promise them, I cut him off at the chase before he can start, holding up a hand to stop him. "I promise."
"Don't have to tell me twice," Rafael purrs, slipping his fingers into my folds, stroking my slick up toward my clit and circling it, making me writhe with a desperate moan.
Phoenix positions himself near my head, his cock already flushed and leaking. I wrap one hand around him, pulling him closer until I can taste the salt-slick head. He groans, the sound rumbling through his sturdy torso.
Rafael lines himself up, and I feel the blunt pressure of him against my entrance. Slick and desperate and—
He pushes in.
Gods. Gods.
I've never had anything but silicone and my own fingers inside me, and Rafael is bigger, hotter, real in ways that make my vision white out at the edges. He fills me in one long, slow thrust that seems to last forever and no time at all.
"Fuck," Rafael breathes against my neck. "You're so tight. So perfect. I can't—"
"Move," I demand, taking Phoenix all the way into my mouth. The alpha above me curses, his hand tangling in my white hair but not pulling. Just holding me, pinning me gently in place.
Rafael starts to thrust, finding a rhythm that has me keening around Phoenix's cock. Every stroke hits places inside me I'd forgotten existed. Every retreat leaves me empty and aching for more.
I think about them in the other room. Think about what they must have done.
Rafael's hand wrapped around Phoenix's length.
Phoenix's mouth on Rafael, tentative but determined.
The sounds they would have made, the desperation, the growls, the way they clearly gave each other what they needed despite being fucking confused.
The mental image makes me clench around Rafael, and he groans, his rhythm faltering.
"She's thinking about it," Phoenix says, his voice wrecked. "About us. I can tell."
"Is it hot?" Rafael asks, and I can hear the sheepish grin in his voice. "Knowing we had to get each other off while you were in here or we'd go feral?"
I pull off Phoenix long enough to gasp, "So hot. Want to watch next time."
"Next time," Rafael repeats warily, but he doesn't say no, and his thrusts get harder, more desperate.
"Fuck. You're going to kill me," Phoenix pants, his cock bumping against my lips again.
Rafael's knot starts to swell. I can feel it catching on my rim with each thrust, demanding entry, demanding I submit to this alpha who smells like everything right in the world.
"Knot me," I demand, taking Phoenix back into my mouth.
He does.
The knot pops inside and locks us together, stretching me impossibly full.
Rafael comes with a snarling shout, his muscles locking up as he spills inside me.
The sensation triggers my own orgasm, clenching around him, milking him, making the knot swell even larger until I'm sobbing around Phoenix's cock.
Phoenix isn't far behind. I feel him thicken on my tongue, his knot starting to form.
For a heart-stopping second I think he's going to knot my mouth—think I want him to, even though I have no fucking clue how—but he pulls back at the last moment, coming across my lips and chin with a strangled groan.
We collapse together, a tangle of satisfied jelly limbs and sweat and purrs. Rafael's still locked inside me, his knot showing no signs of going down anytime soon. Phoenix sprawls beside us, pulling me against his thick, strong body, one huge hand gently stroking my hair.
"You okay?" Phoenix asks softly.
"Better than okay," I manage, even though my voice is shot to hell. "Still desperate though. This heat isn't done with me."
Rafael makes a sympathetic purring sound, pressing kisses to my shoulder. "The knot will help. Should take the edge off until it goes down."
It does help. The constant ache dulls to something manageable, something I can breathe through. But I can already feel it building again, coiling low in my belly like a spring being wound too tight.
Twenty minutes later, Rafael's knot finally deflates enough to slip free. I whimper at the loss, at the sudden emptiness, at the way my body immediately starts demanding more.
Phoenix sees it in my face. "Come here, sweetheart."
I climb onto his lap, straddling those strong thighs, and sink down onto his cock in one desperate motion. He's thicker than Rafael and the stretch makes my eyes roll back. My spine goes slack like a fucking noodle.
"That's it," Phoenix murmurs, his hands settling on my hips to guide my movements. "Take what you need."
What I need is this. The slide and press of him inside me. The way he looks at me like I'm amazing, his growls and the way he pants and his eyes flutter shut when I clench around him, when I roll my hips just right.
He's sweet about it. Gentle despite his size, despite the alpha instincts that must be screaming at him to flip me over and rut.
He lets me set the pace, lets me use him, only tightening his grip when I start to lose the rhythm because Rafael has come up behind me and is stroking my clit in steady, focused circles.
"You're beautiful," Phoenix whispers, licking and nipping gently at my throat, and it's not a line. It's stated as a fact, delivered with the same certainty he uses when counting time. "So fucking beautiful like this."
His already swollen knot starts to catch, and I chase it. Need it. Need to be full and claimed and locked to this alpha until the heat finally breaks.
When he finally knots me, when that impossible thickness locks us together and Phoenix spills inside me with my name on his lips and Rafael's fingers on my clit, I shatter. The orgasm tears through me like lightning, like every nerve ending firing all at once.
I collapse against Phoenix's broad chest, my limbs hanging limply at my sides, and we stay like that, locked together, Rafael's hands massaging my trembling back and thighs.
When I start to doze off, Phoenix is still murmuring soft things I can't quite process, his hands stroking my back, my hair, my face. Rafael has curled up behind me, nuzzling into my neck. Two alphas sealing me in a cocoon of alpha warmth and safety.
But even as consciousness fades, one thought keeps circling back.
Phoenix and Rafael know everything now. Know I'm a girl, know I'm an omega, know I'm their scent match.
And Rex?
Rex is also my scent match. Rex, who hates my guts. Rex, who's using me like a nuclear weapon for revenge. Rex, who will eventually figure out what I am and what we actually are to each other.
But that's a problem for tomorrow-Bells.
Tonight-Bells is just going to fucking sleep.