Chapter 8 #4
“Emory, listen to me. I explained everything to Cameron. I told him how lion ruts work from everything you’ve shared with me over the years, and I told him he didn’t have to come, he could just FaceTime–”
“Yes!” Emory gasped. “He could… We could sext or…phone-sex or whatever it's called. He doesn’t… He can’t… Chris!”
Emory’s hips snapped up as his back pulled taut again, and he ended up curling onto his side, falling into Christopher’s lap.
Christopher let out a shocked grunt, but then immediately began carding his fingers through Emory’s hair.
Emory’s lion made a surprised noise and cocked his head to the side, momentarily stopping his frantic pacing to gauge how they felt about having another alpha touch their hair the way Cameron did.
It was only because it was Christopher, their Christopher, that they both allowed it to continue.
“Yeah, Cameron told me your secret, big guy. I know you’re just a squishy little kitten on the inside who wants to be pet and loved. That’s why Cameron said he’s obviously going to come over and spend your first rut together.”
Emory whimpered, and tears pricked the backs of his eyes. Gods, he had wanted to spend more time with Cameron and finally take him to bed—but not like this. This could very well ruin everything.
He tried to explain this to Christopher, but he was out of time.
They pulled up to their building, and Christopher rushed him inside.
They made it about halfway across the lobby before Emory’s legs gave out.
He collapsed against a table that held a large, breakable-looking vase of flowers, and Jefferson rushed forward to grab him by his other arm.
Emory’s lion snarled in confusion and panic, but his muscles weren’t cooperating, seizing in his midsection and going almost jelly-like in his feet and legs.
“You’re okay, sir. We’re going to get you in the elevator, and Mr. Cameron will be here shortly,” Jefferson said.
“Nooo,” Emory moaned, but both men ignored him as they manhandled him into the elevator.
“Are you going to go up with him, sir?” Jefferson asked Christopher, who was trying to push Emory into the elevator without being dragged inside.
“No, there can’t be the smell of another alpha in his apartment when his full rut sets in, or he’ll go feral. Especially not when Cameron gets there.”
Emory groaned and collapsed into the elevator, barely managing to hold himself up against the wall. “Just let me do this alone. Don’t send Cameron up when he arrives. Tell him…tell him I’m fine.”
“We will tell him exactly how you’re doing, and he can make the decision for himself,” Christopher said, stepping back from the elevator right as the doors slid shut.
Emory’s lion roared dismally. Christopher was correct, though.
He couldn’t have another alpha’s smell in his space, so he quickly shucked off his clothes and tossed them into a crumpled heap in the corner of the entryway.
He stumbled into his apartment and looked down the hall to his bedroom.
He wasn’t sure he’d be able to make it that far.
He kept one toy in the office for late nights when he would collapse on the couch and want to get off before passing out.
It would be easier if he was closer to the bathroom, but maybe after a round or two with the toy, he’d have enough energy to crawl across the apartment.
His last coherent act was to lock the office door behind him before he dove for the toy and slammed it onto his achingly hard cock.
Time spooled out, and he lost all sense of himself, his lion, and anything that wasn’t his cock in his beautiful omega’s ass.
Except that wasn’t quite right.
He couldn’t smell Cameron or feel his lovely warmth. But his cock was in something soft and tight, and it felt so good. He kept moving his hand and his hips, and he came once, then a second time, and finally, his knot inflated, sliding up and into the special slot in the toy designed to hold it.
As he came down from his third orgasm, he found himself lying on the floor, cum coating his belly and running down his sides onto the floor.
The knot kept the toy in place, so he slowly spread his arms out to the side, snow angel style.
He had no idea where his phone was, so he couldn’t text Christopher to see if Cameron was coming, not coming, or had come and gone home, as he really should have.
Instead, he waited a few more minutes for his knot to deflate and then groggily crawled onto his couch. He might be able to get in a quick nap before his next round if—
The ding of his elevator door opening had him on his feet and rushing for the office door. Thank the gods his human brain kicked in right in time for him to slam his palms into the door instead of grabbing the doorknob to unlock it.
“Emory?” a soft voice called, and Emory’s lion bellowed in triumph.
Emory groaned quietly and balled his hands into fists where they were resting on the door. It was nowhere near as substantial as the bedroom door, which was solid oak. This was much thinner wood, which allowed him to hear the elevator ding for deliveries when he was working long hours at his desk.
While very practical on a regular day, it was less than ideal right now.
“Emory? Are you here?” Cameron called again.
Emory barely stifled a groan as his lion roared and jolted him toward the door handle. He managed to avoid this by falling to his knees and pressing his forehead against the door in anguish. Did he have the right words to send Cameron home without hurting his feelings? Did he have any words at all?
“Are you in the office? Did you…fall?” Cameron’s voice was getting closer, and a moment later, the doorknob rattled.
“Don’t!” Emory cried out hoarsely, and the rattling stopped immediately. “Don’t come in, Cameron. Please,” Emory said, hoping maybe politeness would gloss over his shout.
“Are you okay?” Cameron asked from the other side of the door.
Emory heard a soft shuffling, and when Cameron spoke again, his voice came from much lower down.
“Christopher was waiting for me in the lobby, and he told me you were insisting I not come up but that he thought that was ‘stupid and self-sacrificing as always, so please, for the love of the gods, go upstairs.’”
Emory groaned and shifted so he was off his sore knees and instead sitting on his butt, facing the door.
“Was he right? Is the door locked because you’re being self-sacrificing and don’t want to accept any help?” Cameron pressed.
Emory huffed, and his lion made a noise that was somehow both admonishing and desperate. “Help… You say it like you’ve come to assist me in hanging a painting, not to suffer through a ten-hour rut with me. Have you ever even been through a rut before?”
He wished he could take the question back the second it left his mouth. Cameron had been open that he’d only had one long-term partner.
Cameron let out his own huff. “I have, yes. With my shitty ex.”
The one Cameron said was abusive. Emory let out an actual growl, which was nothing compared to the resounding roar his lion made.
The only thing his lion wanted as much as sex was to avenge their fated mate.
It was a dreadfully toxic-alpha thing to want, but the thought of bringing justice raining down on one of the people who had hurt Cameron was almost too good to ignore.
Especially if he had ever hurt Cameron in the bedroom.
Emory would rip his dick off and shove it so far down his throat, he’d—
“Sorry!” Cameron said, interrupting Emory’s spiral. “I probably should have been a bit clearer. I went through a few ruts with him, and shockingly, pretty much the one and only thing he wasn’t shit about was sex, and that included his ruts.”
Emory’s lion let out a very different kind of growl, the ‘do we have to kill him because maybe he was good to our mate—but we’re the only ones who can be good to our mate’ kind.
Which was ridiculous and once again embarrassingly alpha-y, but Emory was beyond himself at this point.
“He was clear about consent in the bedroom,” Cameron clarified.
“Outside, he’d say and do a lot of things that weren’t consensual, but in the bedroom, if I said no, we’d stop.
And that included during ruts. He was a possum shifter, so he wasn’t incredibly fearsome or intense during his ruts to begin with, but…
All that is to say, I have been through ruts before.
They are work, just as much as heats are work, but I’m pretty sure if it was me sitting in there, not wanting you to trouble yourself with my heat, you would never tell me you didn’t want to help because it's ‘too much work.’”
Of course he wouldn’t. Emory would love nothing more than to help his fated mate through heat. But that was different. “It would not be a hardship to help you through heat.”
“Just like it won’t be a hardship to help you through rut,” Cameron said.
His voice shifted and came even closer to the door as if he were pressing his head against the wood.
“Emory, I know our relationship has been progressing slowly, and that’s partially due to me and my hang-ups on relationships, but I’m here now because I want to be.
I want to keep exploring our relationship and getting to know you, and sex is an important part of a relationship to figure out. ”
Emory had to admit, part of him had been worried that sex was going to be another hard thing between them because he hadn’t been sure what flavor of abusive piece of shit Cameron’s ex had been.
In the small snatches of free time Emory had, he’d done some reading on victims of abuse and had been prepared to work through it with Cameron if he so chose.
Sex was an important part of relationships to him, but he had been in no rush and only ever wanted to do what Cameron was comfortable with.
Could he truly be comfortable with this?
“I hate to have to ask this, Cameron, but I just want to be sure I understand. Your ex, who was an abusive piece of shit, never…hurt you?”
Cameron let out a sharp noise, somewhere between a groan and a laugh.
“He hurt me, usually emotionally and mentally, and sometimes, he would grab me or pinch me to get his way, but he never hurt me in bed. That is one type of trauma I don’t have, thank gods.
Now, watching all those documentaries on that serial killer who would lure omegas back to his house for sex and then force them to shift and lock them in aquariums? That may have traumatized me a bit.”
Emory’s head was beginning to go fuzzy again as his next wave of rut approached, but he was pretty sure he’d heard his omega correctly. “Aquariums?”
Cameron laughed a little hysterically. “Yeah. I watched a documentary about it a few years back, and it’s one of the many reasons I don’t date. I was very happy to see you didn’t have any aquariums on New Year's.”
The tension in Emory’s spine eased the tiniest bit as he laughed. “No, I definitely do not have any aquariums—nor any inclination to put you or anyone else in one.”
“Then I don’t really think there’s any need for this door between us.”
Emory was grateful for the door between them as he came up onto all fours and began to thrust his hips.
An alpha’s base instincts took over when they were in rut, and Emory could feel his thoughts slowing down as his body took over.
He looked around frantically, found his discarded toy, and clenched it tightly in his fist.
“Cameron…it’s too late to debate this with you now.
I… Why don’t you go and wait…somewhere that’s not on the other side of this thin door where you’ll have to hear me—nghh,” Emory groaned as his hips snapped forward, and he tried to wait a little bit longer before he began fucking the toy.
He couldn’t be quiet during his rut, and he really didn’t think the first time they did anything sex-related, it should be with a door between them.
“I don’t mind listening. I could even talk to you…if you want?”
“Honey, I’d love that, but you don’t have to,” Emory said, unsure where that admission came from. Maybe from his lion, who purred and flexed his claws each time their fated mate spoke.
“I can! I mean, if you want me to, I can do that!” Cameron said, his voice gaining an edge of something—maybe excitement, but also possibly nerves.
Emory didn’t have time to parse it out because his hips began thrusting of their own accord.
He felt awkward on all fours with Cameron on the other side of the door, so he crawled forward before turning around, forcing his back against the door, even as his hips continued to thrust uselessly into the air.
“If…that’s what you want to do, Cameron…I can’t hold back much longer. You’re going to hear things if you stay here, one way or another.”
Every muscle in his back tensed, threatening to break him in half if he didn’t do something right now. He groaned pitifully and pressed the still sticky toy down onto his cock.
Pleasure shot from his dick all the way down to his toes and up to the tips of his hair. He rocked his head back against the door so hard he almost missed Cameron’s soft cry of, “Emory!”