10. Charlie
Crouched behind the ruined remains of a kitchen table, I tried desperately to reload and fix whatever issue I was having. With Jesse down, and Tara holed up under the stairs with no ammo, I was the last line of defense before it was curtains for all of us.
I banged the gun on the ground and finally a reload began, the animation still playing as the pounding steps of one of the creatures approached.
I was trapped, and even if I could move, there was no guarantee I’d be able to hit hard enough to kill the creature bearing down on me.
The game over screen was fast approaching, and I’d accepted it, just briefly closing my eyes. Logically, I knew this was just a game, but it was so visceral I couldn’t help but flinch as the banded floor beneath me quivered.
Any second now the monster would turn its head and I’d be toast. A bunch of deleted pixels until I was able to spawn back in.
Though as I waited, I heard Tara shout—the words lost as the creature roared. I knew it was no use, she wouldn’t make it in time, but I opened my eyes to watch her final play, hoping to catch a big heroic moment.
As I did, I felt impact, not in game, but in real life. On instinct I dropped the gun, cradling the small body that’d just launched into my arms.
I was so disoriented from the game I stumbled, overbalancing and landing on the ground with a grunted ‘oof’.
Cherry and lime exploded in my nose, coating everything like a blanket. Gone was the whisper I’d caught before the game, Tara’s scent sweeter and more pungent. A complete assault on my senses.
Something I’d only ever experienced once before.
When she was in heat.
I threw my headset off, my head swimming with vertigo as I blinked back into the small, dimly lit room. “Are you okay?”
Tara’s breathing was heavy as her own headset came off, ruffling her hair. The action spread her scent even more, a veritable cloud of tangy candy encircling us as she looked up at me with wide eyes. Her body was warm, overly so, sweat dewing along her face and dampening the back of her dress as I cradled her to me.
“I—I’m fine,” she choked out, voice barely above a whisper.
Her pupils were blown, cheeks flushed as she licked her lips, gaze dipping to my mouth, mere inches from hers.
My cock was rock solid, pressing against the zipper of my pants uncomfortably where her ass ground down into me—but that wasn’t something I should be thinking about. Not when I could consider that despite the laser precision with which I could remember the way Tara’s lips felt wrapped around my cock, I had no idea what it was like to kiss her.
Charlie, fuck, focus. Don’t think about that either!
“Are you both okay?” Jesse asked, scrubbing a hand through his hair to loosen his curls, flattened by the headset. “You hit him real hard.”
The beta made a move to catch Tara’s arm, aiming to help her out of my hold, but my hand shot out to smack his fingers away instinctively, keeping my omega pulled firmly against my chest.
Tara whined, a thin needy noise that set every one of my nerve endings on fire with the need to fix whatever was ailing her.
“Babygirl?” I asked, letting my voice take on that firm, assertive quality I’d used at the Omega’s Lust. “What’s wrong?”
“Babygirl?” Jesse barked, hackles raising protectively. If he was an alpha, I think I would’ve found it in myself to cower. “Charlie, put my goddamn girlfriend down.”
“It’s too hot,” Tara whimpered, struggling in my hold as she moved to try and work her dress off. “Fuck, is there no AC?”
“Physically, we’re fine,” I said, my voice clipped as I brought Tara’s hands away from where she was battling her zipper. “But I think Tara’s gone into heat.”
Jesse’s blue eyes grew wide. “ What ? Oh fuck, I didn’t know you were that close,” he said to her, touching the back of his hand to her forehead with a little hiss. “Okay, we need to get her to Omega’s Lust?—”
“No!” she all but sobbed, wrapping her arms around my neck to cling to me, face pressed into my throat for a deep inhale at my scent gland.
We both looked at her then, though for me there wasn’t much turning my head as Tara continued to nose at my throat.
My hand ran over her hair instinctively, as my own pheromones became stronger. A rattling, unpracticed purr breaking from me like a faulty motor as I tried to calm her a little.
“No?” Jesse asked. “What do we do then? That’s your heat plan sweetie…” He shifted on his feet, eyeing the two of us in confusion.
I could tell he was uncomfortable, but there was nothing to be done. The reality was that Tara was in heat, and I’d be six feet under before I left her side.
Well, that and the unfortunate reality that this entire scene was playing out in a dingy barcade basement. We wouldn’t be able to stay here long, not with Tara being unbonded. Any alpha that happened to stumble into the bar could likely smell her by now. It would only be a matter of time before the situation turned from slightly humorous, if not a bit unfortunate, to downright dangerous.
“Let’s get her to the car, we can take her home.” I said, uncertainty coiling in my stomach as I inserted myself into the middle of things.
I knew it wasn’t my place, but the idea of leaving her in this state was physically painful. A growl waited in the back of my throat at the concept alone.
“I s-want… to…” Tara mumbled softly, the parts of her broken sentence loud enough to hear unintelligible.
Jesse dropped to his knees, the plastic rifle and headset clattering to the floor beside him as he gently ran his knuckles over the part of Tara’s cheekbone that was visible under of my neck. “What was that baby?” he asked, voice soft and coaxing. “Can you try again for me?”
My jaw clenched, fingers digging into Tara hard enough that I was sure to leave marks.
I think if anyone else tried to get close to her in this state, I would’ve snapped at them. But, this was Jesse, and I couldn’t do that with him, didn’t feel the urge to.
Even if the urge to growl at him was still there.
Tara took a few deep breaths, as if she was trying to clear her heat hormone soaked mind.
“I want Charlie to come,” she managed eventually, her voice barely above a whisper. “And I know he wants to.”
Not that she needed to, Tara ground down in my lap to illustrate her point. I was so fucking hard it was a wonder that the button didn’t pop off my jeans.
Jesse froze, their face totally blank as they looked between the omega in my lap and me. I couldn’t tell how they were feeling, but I had to assume it wasn’t positive, his uncertainty nearly palpable.
One thing was clear, he did not like how Tara was touching me.
Or how I was touching her.
“Why don’t we just take her to her house,” I suggested, trying to manage the tense situation as practically as possible. “She’ll need her nest, and we can figure out a plan there.”
Jesse’s Adam's apple bobbed with his hard swallow. “Yeah, okay.”
I stood with Tara cradled in my arms with some effort, I wasn’t joking when I’d said I was a bit clumsy. Sort of one of the downsides that came with being built like one of those dancing inflatable men in front of a car dealership with a knot. She clung to me, kisses pressing up the side of my neck as I took the stairs two at a time.
The alpha working the bar’s head whipped around to watch as I made for the front door, letting my long legs propel us quickly across the faded carpet.
“Mind your fuckin’ business,” Jesse hissed to him with a threatening point.
It was the most agitated I’d ever seen them, and dare I say…. It was a little… Okay it was majorly, stupidly sexy.
“Let’s take yours,” Jesse muttered irritably, bypassing their little two door sports car for my large black SUV. “Give her to me. You drive.”
“No!” Tara gasped, her hold tightening on me as her scent took on an alcoholic quality in her displeasure.
Jesse’s expression was unreadable, his hand extending for my keys. “Fine. I’ll drive.”
“Sorry,” I mouthed to him, unlocking the car and sliding into the back with Tara in my lap. “I don’t think I’d be able to concentrate with the smell anyway.”
“Yeah,” they clipped, sliding into the driver's side.
I wanted to talk to Jesse—ask how he was feeling, assure him that this didn’t mean anything. It was just heat hormones, and there was nothing between me and his girlfriend except memories.
Really, really fond memories.
But my focus was on Tara as I attempted to wrestle a seat belt around the both of us. “Don’t worry, little omega, we’ll be home soon.”
Tara’s fingers were trembling too much to work her keys, leaving Jesse to unlock the door as we waited in the overly white hall of her apartment building. The moment it was unlatched, they pushed into the apartment, leaving it wide for us to follow.
An involuntary shiver ran down my spine. The entire place was coated in her perfume, so thick that I thought I might fall over.
The apartment was, undeniably, Tara .
The front door opened into her living room, a large grey sectional facing a flatscreen television nestled between bookshelves full of books and collectibles. From the amalgamation of figurines, I could guess that she was a big fan of magical girl anime. A miniature army of PVC girls in short skirts covered as much shelf space as possible.
From the door, I could see her kitchen as well. White cabinets and a sparkly black countertop. Pretty much your average rental kitchen, save for the purple accessories along her countertop and potted plants above the cabinets.
Along with the framed artwork on the walls, it made me think a lot of like somewhere an Animal Crossing villager would live. Okay, maybe not a villager, their houses were always fucked with like dirt floors and shit. But certainly a player's house that’d sunk at least a couple hundred hours into the game.
“Hey, this is really—” I started as Tara left my side, taking her warmth with her as she collided with Jesse in a messy, whine filled kiss that made my jaw ache.
His hands slid up the back of her dress, skirt bunching as he groped her ass.
Her arms went around his neck, body pressing flush against his as her lips moved from Jesse’s to his jaw, nipping hard at the skin.
I was frozen, unsure if this was heaven or hell.
My dream girl, the omega I’d fumbled and never managed to forget—and the best friend I’d been pining after for years making out right in front of me, the potent scent of Tara’s heat-fueled pheromones inviting me in with every gasp and whispered praise.
“Nest, now. Please Jesse?” Tara whined, nipping his ear hard. “I need you.”
Jesse’s eyes met mine, a distinct air of smugness to the expression. Gone was the fury from the parking lot or the inscrutable expression from the barcade. If I could read his mind, I would’ve guessed he was thinking one thing and one thing only— See? She’s mine.
If he was an alpha, like Cameo, it would’ve made me furious. Raising my hackles until I was growling and snarling my dominance at the challenge.
But… he wasn’t Cameo. And instead of frustrated or threatened I found myself wondering what it would be like for Jesse to snarl in my ear like that while I pounded into him.
He looked at Tara, the omega meeting his steady gaze through heavily lidded eyes.
It was clear that a bit of kissing Jesse wasn’t coming close to putting a damper on the consuming, oppressive weight of her heat-fueled need, her scent so thick and heavy it could’ve been cut with a knife.
But Jesse wasn’t built to react to that the way I was, staying calm and collected as I fought the disastrous urge to rut into her for hours.
Not until she asked for me.
I was nothing but a good little toy made for her pleasure after all. If she wanted to use me as a warm, alpha-sized dildo while she kissed her boyfriend, I sure as shit wasn’t going to object.
Just like at Omega’s Lust, it was about what Tara needed.
That came first. Would always come first.
“Hey baby,” Jesse asked, cupping her face in his hands to interrupt her fervent kissing at his skin. “We’ll go right in, but… where do you want… him ?”
Tara hummed, her head turning with vision half clouded.
The look was so similar to the way she’d been a year ago, eyes meeting mine through the two-way mirror so full of need that it was hard to keep my head.
Wide, wanting, pleading.
No matter what she asked for, I’d do it. Be it. If it meant I got to be close to Tara again.
Close to Jesse .
Fuck .
“J—j-just in the room,” she managed, uncertainty making her shy into the beta’s side. “At my desk. So I can still smell him. Please Jesse, just fix me. I need you so bad.”
He looked a bit… uneasy. It was obvious they hadn’t been with her during a heat before, and that they didn’t know how to handle it. Offering to drop her off at Omega’s Lust? It would’ve read like a rejection to Tara. Especially with her alpha right here ready to take care of her.
Not her alpha.
An alpha.
And this was none of my business. And no matter how badly I wanted to, I wasn’t going to butt in unless I was invited. It didn’t matter that we had a past, her present—especially her relationship with Jesse—wasn’t my business to insert myself into.
No matter how badly I craved pounding into that sweet little omega’s pussy again.
Jesse led her into her bedroom, with me following close behind.
A large circular bed was pressed against the far wall, the curtains on the windows drawn back to let in the remaining dregs of late evening sunlight.
I barely caught Tara’s wince before I was crossing her plush purple carpet to close the curtains and power down her PC. I knew from health class more than anything that omegas liked things pretty dark and quiet when they were in heat, and though I figured a pre-war apartment building on a busy street wasn’t an ideal place to get through the next forty-eight to seventy-two hours, I figured the least I could do was try to minimize the problems I could.
Tara crawled onto the mattress as Jesse shut the door, moving to adjust the plethora of pillows and blankets.
Everything from the walls, to the PC, to the frog-shaped keyboard arm rest was some shade of purple. The only contrast in the room was provided by a smattering of lush green plants dotting any available surface.
She hummed softly, nudging a particularly furry black pillow that opened its large green eyes with a yawn. The round cat’s head lifted as it stirred, stretching lazily before it rubbed against Tara’s side with a soft meow.
“Sorry, Inky,” Jesse said as he lifted the cat away from Tara’s gentle scratches behind her ears with a small squeak of protest. “But there are some things you just shouldn’t have to watch your mom do.”
“Bye baby,” Tara called after the cat as Jesse set her down in the hall, shutting the door. “You can sit there.” she called to me, pointing to the purple gaming chair. The brand was familiar to me, not that it particularly mattered if the omega was sponsored by the company that made my seat.
A cuck chair was a cuck chair no matter who paid for it.
I sat, getting as comfortable as I could with my stiff, throbbing cock begging for attention it wouldn’t be receiving.
“You okay baby?” Jesse asked. “Need water or anything?”
“No, just you.” she said softly, tugging him closer by the hip the moment he was in range. “Please.”
“I got you,” they assured softly, eyes sliding to me as he tugged off his shirt. “Well… Turn around, weirdo.”
I spun in the chair to face the black monitor as Jesse reached to turn on the fairy lights woven through the canopy over Tara’s bed. At first, I’d thought that I’d spend most of the next three days staring at a black screen—but that was the thing about these top-of-the-line glass-fronted monitors.
When they were off, they were almost as good as a mirror.
Tara pulled Jesse on top of her, his thighs bracketing her slender waist as she worked them both out of their clothes without finesse. For a moment, it was like Jesse forgot I was there, wholly enraptured as their lips met Tara’s in a series of messy kisses.
“Jess, please,” she whispered, the omega whine so close to the surface that it made me grind my teeth. “I need you. Fuck me.”
Her fingers threaded into his hair, pushing him down to her chest and lower, Jesse’s mouth pressing hot, open-mouthed kisses along her skin as they adjusted to nip and suck their way down her ribs.
“You’re fucking burning up, babe,” he mumbled softly, golden tanned hands pressing on either side of her inner thighs to part them enough for their broad shoulders. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.” His voice wasn’t entirely convincing, but in the heat haze Tara didn’t seem to mind, hips lifting off the bed in a futile attempt to bring her slick, needy cunt closer to his waiting mouth.
Like the first time I’d seen her like this, she was entirely hairless. Her pretty pink pussy distorted and colorless in the reflection of the black glass.
Jesse adjusted until he was level with her, teasing her inner thigh with his teeth until Tara was whining again, begging incoherently through frustrated half sobs.
My mouth watered thinking about the first time I’d tasted her ice pop sweet slick, licking it from the dildo I’d fucked her with. The way I’d wished to tear off the muzzle holding me back to bury my tongue into her sweet cunt to collect that succulent flavor from the source.
In the distorted monochromatic reflection of the screen I watched as Jesse wrapped their arms up and around Tara’s thighs, spreading them to give him more access as he devoured her, sucking and slurping along her sex as his tongue speared inside of her.
There was no amount of porn in the world that could be better than this.
Her moan echoed through the room, hands finding purchase in the sheets and in Jesse’s hair as she ground against his face, taking the lead in her own pleasure even as Jesse was arguably in the dominant position.
It sounded like Jesse mumbled something, but there was no discerning it with his face so firmly planted in her cunt. Or maybe he was just moaning.
Fuck. The idea, Tara’s scent, and her gasped praises had me leaking. I pressed a hand down onto my swollen cock, narrowly resisting the urge to slip my hand into my pants to stroke myself.
Anything for a little relief.
“Just like that, Jess. You’re doing such a good job.” Tara panted, totally at odds with the begging, sobbing mess I’d encountered at the Heat Hotel.
Well... except… was it?
I’d assumed she’d taken the lead with me because she felt she needed to. That when I cracked the act Cameo pushed me into, that she sensed I wasn’t strong enough to give her what an alpha should.
That I wasn’t the alpha she needed because I wasn’t forceful enough to take charge in the way omegas craved or whatever bullshit Cameo had filled my mind with.
Because, I realized with a pang at how foolish I’d been as I watched Tara wrap her slender fingers around Jesse’s cock, rewarding their ministrations with a sure stroke that made the beta’s hips lift off the bed, that’s all it was.
Alphahole bullshit.
A false narrative that nearly lost me the girl of my dreams.
Like Tara could sense my stormy, self-loathing thoughts—or maybe it was Jesse, working harder to keep my attention—she let out a loud whimper, drawing my attention back to her with laser focus.
“Fuck, he smells so good ,” she whispered under her breath, thighs quivering. “It makes me want to—oh, fuck !”
She came with a loud moan and a flood of that cherry limeade scent that’d had me stiff in my trousers since I’d laid eyes on her again, but I was more interested in the thought she’d failed to finish.
It makes you want to what , little omega?
I didn’t say the words aloud, worried I’d break the spell of my ludicrously lucky circumstance that allowed me this close in the first place. Not to mention… Jesse had started to settle. I wasn’t really interested in drawing his ire once more.
Not when we could be a team.
But that was a far off, far too hopeful idea. I knew they had feelings about what was happening, but kept it to himself for Tara’s sake.
Tara flipped them, shuffling and using her hand to angle Jesse’s cock just so to fall on his cock, spearing herself easily. She didn’t wait to start riding them, bouncing and grinding in his lap with soft little gasps and moans.
I could hear how wet she was, how quickly she was taking Jesse. The sound of their bodies meeting in a steady rhythm of skin against skin was one of the most erotic things I’d ever experienced.
My hand moved over my cock in my pants. The need to touch myself was painful, but I knew I shouldn’t take it out—probably shouldn’t even be touching it, given how likely I was to fire off at the faintest breeze. But I needed some relief. Even in the form of my palm rubbing slowly over my rough jeans, applying a little pressure to my twitching, leaking length.
My scent was as thick as Tara’s in the air, making me a smidge self-conscious. Not that I could do anything about it, there were only so many mechanisms of my biology that I could fight at once. And since clinging to my senses and keeping out of rut was my priority, I had to accept that my obvious arousal was going to just… be what it was.
But fuck, what I wouldn’t do to bend Tara overtop of Jesse and pound into her round ass.
“You feel so fucking good,” Jesse moaned. “So tight.”
“Your cock is mine ,” she groaned, that same possessiveness lacing her tone from the barcade. “Harder, I’m gonna come again.”
Her movements lost a bit of their rhythmic finesse, scent flooding the room as Jesse’s hands found her hips, fucking into her from below until she was shouting his name through another orgasm that had slick dripping around Jesse’s cock.
“Tara… fuck ,” Jesse tightened up right along with her, their stuttered pace warning that they’d filled her with their cum.
Precum dripped against my leg, my knot throbbing with the need to bury myself deep inside of her.
But not before I’d had a taste of them on my tongue, finally finding out for myself if Jesse’s release leaned more to the sour or sweet side of their lemony scent.
Tara’s whine was like a siren call, my hand leaving the front of my pants to grip the black armrests of the chair until my knuckles were white.
I wanted to go to her.
To be with her.
But I didn’t have permission.
This was my place, and I would respect that.
She started riding him again right away, chasing another orgasm off the first with a desperate gasp. “More!”
Jesse whimpered, giving her a little nudge. “Too sensitive—I need a sec baby. Let me finger you? Or I can use a toy?”
She whined, laying down against him, his cock popping from her, their cum mixed with her slick slipping from her dewed entrance.
“I don’t care, just touch me—I need more—” she whined, high and desperate. “It’s so hot, Jesse. Please.”
The growl that came from me wasn’t intentional, I hadn’t even known it came from me until both of their eyes met mine in the reflection of the screen.
For a moment, I worried that I’d blown it, that I’d be asked to leave. But the needy moan that left Tara erased my worries as easily as shaking an etch-a-sketch.
I turned in the chair, seeing them in full color for the first time—8-bit to 4K.
Tara’s kiss-swollen lips were parted in surprise, hips moving with her legs slotted against Jesse, chasing her pleasure as she rutted against his thigh.
Jesse’s eyes landed on my cock where it pressed against my pants, the hard line of it obvious in the soft purple glow of the neon lights. His tongue darted out to lick his bitten lips, bite marks and bruises lining his neck and chest from Tara’s eager mouth.
Separately they were… Unreal.
Together?
My pack.
I was so fucked .