Chapter Eight
Eden
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She had only met Luke for two minutes before now, but they were two minutes that changed her life. They were two minutes in which he saved her life. They were two minutes that brought her to this pack. They were two minutes when she stopped being alone and started being a part of them.
She hates that she suddenly feels exposed and awkward with his return.
Hadn't she worried about him every night?
But hadn't she also been having sex with his packmates in his bed every night?
And now he was back. And he smelled as warm and safe as the others did, even under the harsh fragrance of the de-scenters they used.
Luke respectfully averted his eyes when Tenor crouched in front of her to redress her in her beige jumpsuit. When the three of them walked to the mess hall for breakfast, they surrounded her with Julius taking point and Luke and Tenor crowding behind her from the rear.
It felt like a well-rehearsed dance they'd done a million times before, like the four of them just fit together.
And she couldn't deny that it felt strangely safe and whole, something she hadn't expected when dealing with any alpha, let alone one who she had seen literally break a full-grown man's bones with his bare hands.
"You still got the same work detail?" Julius grunts to Luke as he shovels food in his mouth.
Eden has to avert her eyes at his enthusiasm. The way they ate tended to roll her stomach. It always tended to remind her of the shows on National Geographic with the lions tearing apart a gazelle carcass.
Luke just grunts in response, which Eden assumes must be assent. He's too busy inhaling his own plate to respond with words apparently.
"Eden's with us," Julius returns.
Luke grunts again. And that seems to be the end of the conversation.
She briefly wonders whether the pack speaks another language that she just doesn't understand, like some sort of pidgin clicking language, or maybe they used the bond?
She'd heard it could be used to communicate feelings.
She had no idea though, obviously, never having had a bond herself.
Even if she'd suddenly become interested in the idea recently.
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She supposes, given the upheaval in their routine and the anxiety from the morning, she should've expected another heat spike.
Luke's eyes can't seem to stop straying to her nest in the metal shop, like it's a beautiful exotic bird that hopped into their prison workshop.
She's tucked in the corner of it with one of Tenor's books, trying to concentrate, but she finds her eyes straying to him too. He's so big, bigger even than Tenor and Julius, and she finds his presence comforting as much as she finds it nerve-wracking.
Her scent grows so slowly she doesn't realize what's happening until the spike is on her like a fist closing around her lungs.
Julius notices at the same time as she does. He's across the room in seconds, crouching in front of her and intending just to scent her and investigate what she needs, but when the power of her spike pheromones hits him, he groans.
"I've got you," he rumbles.
Then Luke is there too. "She smells like–" he takes a deep inhale. "She smells like fucking heaven. Holy fuck, how does she smell that good? Like sweet pomegranates. Fuck, I love me a good pomegranate."
Without asking, without warning, he reaches out and catches her by the hair, his big hand tangling through the golden strands and cupping her head as he leans in close for another whiff. The movement is so possessive, so dominant, she cannot stop the whine that escapes from her throat in response.
She whimpers, arching her neck for him. "Please, alpha..."
Julius looks back and forth between them, looking uncertain. His voice sounds hesitant when he seeks out confirmation from her. "You want Luke here, sweetheart? Or do you want him to give us some space?"
Luke rumbles at him in warning, crawling on top of her in her nest and rubbing his whole body against hers like a contented cat.
She feels her whole body relax at that, can smell the contented omega pheromones leaking out of her now under his care. It feels like he scratches an itch she didn't even know she had.
"I'll take care of the little omega," Luke rumbles. "If she wants."
Her head is nodding before she can even think to formulate a response. Yes, she wants him to keep doing what he's doing. She feels like he's playing her body like an instrument that he's already long since mastered.
His rumbling turns to a contented purr, and then it really is like being cuddled by a giant overgrown cat.
"Spread your legs," he says, and without thought she obeys. He adjusts her, tugging on her limbs and adjusting the fabric until only her legs are out of her jumpsuit while her arms and torso are still tucked securely inside.
Then he strips himself naked so she has a full view of his thick weeping cock and the rippling muscles stacked on top of each other from his thick neck all the way down to his feet. He's hairier than the others too, and it sparks something primal inside her.
"Snuggle into your nest, little omega. I'm going to take such good care of you." She wraps her blanket around her upper half, breathing the scent deeply into her lungs. It smelled like her, and like safety. But it smelled like them as well. And that smelled safe too.
When he fucks her, it feels like he's claiming her. She burrows deeper into her nest and he follows, his earthy alpha scent pervading throughout the whole thing.
She doesn't know how many times she comes from his deep, feral thrusting, but when he finally reaches his own release, he pulls out quickly, jerking himself off rapidly so ropes of his cum spray across her body and the blankets.
He quickly buries himself back inside her, his knot resting at her entrance as he wrings out the last ropes of his release into her body.
Afterwards, he rumbles contentedly at what he's done, snuggling her into her small nest of blankets that now smelled perfect. "This will help," he says, as if he's solved a problem for them.
"What will help? Jizzing all over her nest?" Julius is sniping, his cock still evidently hard in his pants where he is crouching hesitantly at the edge of the blankets, as if he doesn't know if he's allowed in.
"It'll make her feel safe," Luke says, as if the answer is obvious.
Julius snorts out a disgusted sound and then straightens and heads back to his work bench, Luke following after cuddling her for a few more minutes.
And as she lays there watching them, Eden realizes how correct he was. Luke's scent surrounds her now, laced through her nest in a way that makes her feel undeniably protected and cared for.
It is a claim, one she didn't realize she wanted so badly until he gave it to her. Just like when he brought her to his pack, where they kept her warm and cared for and safe.
But she's an omega in a prison full of aggressive alphas who haven't seen a woman in years, so safety can only last so long.