Chapter 37 - Andrew
Gabriel never called. He never texted. The shades of anger and fear in the bond waxed and waned, but there was never a moment that I had any clue as to what was happening.
I half-heartedly suggested that we try to get some sleep but Nathan glared at me until I apologized. We had managed to keep somewhat positive as we built Bridget’s nest then choked down dinner, but with every passing hour it got harder and harder to sit in that fucking apartment doing nothing.
When two a.m. hit and there was still no word from Gabriel, I started to pace.
It hurt like a bitch but I relished each grinding step as a way to keep myself awake and alert.
I wanted to call him so badly it felt like denying myself water in the desert when I had salvation in my hand.
But what if he was in danger and my call distracted him? No, better to wait until he called us.
“We need to call Maggie,” Nathan said at two-thirty. We’d all but agreed to be packmates a few hours ago, and my conscience told me I should listen to him.
I relented. “Give Gabriel thirty more minutes, and then we will.”
Nathan gave me a curt nod, but gratitude shone in his eyes. He was still sitting in the armchair, his hand clasped tightly together.
“Want another drink?” I asked.
“No,” he murmured. I didn’t really, either.
A cricket game from the other side of the world played on the TV, the sound muted. Neither of us were watching.
Just before 3 a.m., the front door opened.
Nathan met my eyes, his as wide as mine with panic. We scrambled for the door.
I saw Bridget first. I clocked the darkening bruise on the side of her face, the red marks around her neck, her rumpled clothes. But she smiled when she saw me and my inner Alpha took over.
I pulled her roughly against me. She held on tight as I buried my face into the crook of her neck.
“You can’t ever leave me again,” I murmured against her throat.
“I don’t plan on it,” she whispered after a moment.
Even as my brain told me to be cautious, to be rational, my heart said otherwise. What was the point of hiding how I felt? “You belong here. With me. With us.”
I felt her nod against me and I tightened my hold. I was probably hurting her, but I couldn’t stop. She was here, she was safe.
I released her, ready to ask what had happened, but Bridget leaned up on her toes to kiss me before I could form the words.
My breath stopped. The kiss was soft and I held her carefully, keeping myself still in case I scared her away.
But her lips moved against mine, tentative at first, then more confident.
Her cool breath was like the breeze through a spring garden.
When her tongue darted out to meet mine, I couldn’t suppress a groan at her taste, an echo of the flavor of her slick that I’d licked from my fingers what seemed a lifetime ago.
Bridget’s arms looped around my neck as I pulled her closer, nuzzled the spot just under her ear, and brushed my fingers down the knobs of her spine.
I was purring, a full-throated sound to which Bridget couldn’t help but respond.
She relaxed in my arms, becoming boneless, and I kissed her more deeply.
I wanted more, of course, wanted to strip her down and kiss every square inch of her body, taste her sweet slick from the source, sink my teeth into the delicate skin covering her pounding pulse. But I needed answers first.
I pulled away reluctantly and her injuries reasserted themselves. I growled at the marks on her neck. Someone had put their hands around her throat. “Are you alright? Do you need a doctor?”
“I’m okay,” she said, but her voice was hoarse.
Then I saw Gabriel behind her.
My first reaction was fury. He’d put himself in danger, had kept me waiting here all fucking night, and then he shows up without calling, without letting me know he was alive?
I stepped around Bridget and pressed him roughly against the back of the door. The fucker wasn’t even sorry; I could feel his triumph in the bond at bringing Bridget back safely, and something else under the surface. Some kind of disappointment. But nothing like guilt.
“I’m never going to forgive you for this,” I growled and I let him feel my anger and my gut-wrenching fear that I’d lose him.
I poured the muted terror of every minute waiting for him to call into the bond.
He held me fiercely and took it all, and I could feel his remorse for having hurt me, but there was still no guilt for what he’d done.
“I would do it again, amore,” he whispered and drew me closer. When his arms wrapped around my neck, I let my growl dissolve into a purr. His scent was stronger than usual, from pride probably, and it calmed my inner Alpha.
“You could have at least called,” I grumbled, then kissed him.
He kissed me greedily, licking at my mouth with indecent enthusiasm for someone who’d been running around the city all night. My purr deepened to a growl again as I felt him harden against my thigh. I pressed my leg against him and he groaned.
I could have gotten on my knees right there and then if one of them wasn’t in agony. But I also remembered we had an audience.
Bridget and Nathan had retreated to the living room, and he was holding her tightly, swaying back and forth with an expression closer to pain than happiness.
“I’m sorry for worrying you,” she was saying, and he shushed her gently, kissing the top of her head.
I expected jealousy at watching the two of them together.
But my inner Alpha didn’t rear back in envy.
There was no urge to slit anyone’s throat.
Instead, all I felt was approval. Nathan was comforting our Omega as he should.
Gabriel squeezed my hand gently, and even if I hadn’t felt his pride for me in the bond, I would have seen it in his smile.
“As much as I would love to hear exactly what happened tonight, I think we all need some rest,” I said.
Bridget turned to face us. Her eyes flicked to where Gabriel’s hand was intertwined with mine and I couldn’t read her expression.
I hoped that soon I’d be able to fix that problem. “Come on, I wanna show you something.”
The mattresses on the floor looked more inviting with the prospect of sharing it with Bridget and Gabriel rather than a sleepover with just Nathan. She inhaled softly when she saw it.
“A nest?” she asked.
“A shitty one. But it’ll work for tonight. I’ve got some improvements planned for tomorrow—”
“No, it’s great,” Bridget interrupted with a quick smile. Her eyes found Nathan. “And you’ll… You’ll stay, too?”
Nathan inclined his head. We really needed to have a chat about his resting bitch face.
Bridget disappeared for a few minutes and returned with damp hair, wearing the same shorts she’d been wearing when I—
Nope. Not the time to remember that. I reminded myself it was almost four in the morning.
“Come here,” I said, patting the mattress. I was glad she hadn’t seen my undignified collapse into the nest. Gabriel was already shirtless on my other side. We’d agreed that I would get to cuddle with Bridget as his punishment.
Bridget hesitated for just a second before crawling in beside me. She settled with a sigh that brought a gust of her scent. I grabbed her hand and kissed her palm. That was the only part of her I trusted myself to touch.
Nathan arrived, wearing another one of my t-shirts and basketball shorts. They were both slightly too small on him. He looked more severe than ever, but I knew now that was just discomfort at the thought of doing something wrong. And maybe a bit of fear.
“Come on, man. We saved you a spot,” I said, and he looked at me gratefully.
He lay on Bridget’s other side, and Gabriel switched off the lamp.
For a moment, we were all quiet, just breathing. Bridget’s scent snaked around us, wrapping us in a cocoon of honey-scented sunshine. She sighed. And then she laughed, a giggle that made my heart turn over.
“I’m sorry,” she said, trying to catch her breath. “This is just… There’s no way I’m gonna be able to sleep.”
I chuckled and reached for her hand again. It trembled slightly in mine. “Are you feeling restless?”
“Something like that,” she said and her laughter faded to a sigh.
It was terrible of me to even consider it. She was exhausted, she was hurt, she’d obviously been through something horrible. But I still found myself murmuring into the darkness, “I know of one way to help you relax.”
She was silent for one long moment, then she whimpered and I gave up on trying to be good.
The muscles of her thigh twitched under my palm as I skated it from her hip to her knee, then back again. She shivered, and I felt goosebumps pebble her smooth, soft skin.
“Relax,” I murmured, and found her lips in the light filtering through the curtains.
She kissed me tentatively at first, barely meeting my lips, but when I brushed her inner thigh she gasped against my mouth and I took full advantage.
I would never get used to the taste of her, no matter how many times I got to kiss her. It would never be enough. She whimpered again as I slanted my mouth over hers.
I stopped touching her just long enough to slap at Nathan’s shoulder in what I thought was a clear invitation to join in. It was very magnanimous of me, actually.
Bridget’s scent was thickening by the second. Behind me, Gabriel groaned and I felt him shifting. The sharp intake of his breath made me realize he was touching himself, and I growled into Bridget’s mouth. My cock was already hard against her hip.
I pulled her shorts down roughly and brushed her inner thighs again. Slick was already streaking her skin, just from my kiss, and my inner Alpha roared with pride.
And yet Nathan was still just laying there.
I broke my lips from Bridget’s just long enough to hiss into the darkness, “Nathan. Your Omega needs you,” before returning my attention to her lovely sweet lips.
Finally, I felt him move, heard his breathing as he brushed her damp hair away from her neck. She sighed, then whined when I slid my hand under her shirt to find one peaked nipple and gave it a gentle pinch.
I sat up to watch her face. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could see Nathan’s hand brushing her hip, drawing circles that went closer and closer to where I knew she was aching to be touched. Her eyes were closed, her mouth open as she panted and whined.
I pushed her shirt up roughly so I could watch her nipples tighten further as I teased them. Nathan kissed her neck, then her earlobe, and then caught her lips. She rolled to her back to give him better access.
As he plundered her mouth, I looked at Gabriel then cursed. He was stroking himself roughly, watching us, his legs spread wantonly. I wanted to taste him, but he shook his head. “Voglio guardare,” he groaned.
“Oh god,” Bridget moaned. She was watching Gabriel fuck his own hand, too. “Oh my god.”
Just before I could demand Nathan touch her where she wanted, he tore her panties off. Literally tore them off, straight down the middle, then sank two fingers deep inside her.
I kissed her again, stealing her moans of pleasure for myself. I finally gave up and grabbed my cock, unable to stop myself. She was squirming more than ever, and I wanted to come with her. “Come for us, baby,” I whispered in her ear.
“Fuck,” she whined, her hips bucking harder. “Oh god—”
She went rigid beneath me, gasping, and my cock exploded in my hand. My cum shot all over her chest and stomach, thick ropes that splashed against her skin as I marked her with my scent. Gabriel cursed one last time, broken and guttural, and I watched him come all over his own chest.
Nathan didn’t let up. Just as Bridget started to come down, he pushed me aside so he could bury his face in her pussy.
I was jealous, then. How could I not be?
Bridget gasped as he pushed her knees apart, lapping at her clit and then fucking her with his tongue. I grabbed her legs for him so he could flick her clit with his thumb, and she came apart all over again.
It was almost a religious experience, watching my Omega come so hard her eyes rolled back and her legs shook. She was covered in my cum and her lips were swollen from my kiss. The only thing that was missing was my mark on her neck.
We all cared for her as she came back to herself, dazed and exhausted. Gabriel lapped a bit of my cum from her chest before cleaning her with a damp towel, and I growled a warning at him. He couldn’t do shit like that if he didn’t want me to fuck him, no matter how tired I was.
Nathan brushed kisses up Bridget’s thighs, then her stomach and chest, and finally her lips. She sighed in contentment.
“Well, I think I can sleep now,” she murmured. When I curled toward her, she burrowed into my chest. I felt Nathan settle in behind her, then felt Gabriel cuddle up next to me. I knew we were all going to wake up sweaty and starving, but I didn’t care.
This is where we all belonged.