Chapter Six
“What do you mean ‘he’s back’?” I was confused by Dexter’s words, and by his uncharacteristic vulnerability. The wonder on his face was one thing, but the tears…well, they worried me, even though he was smiling widely. “Dex, I don’t understand.”
Around us, the air seemed to grow thick and heavy with the arousal of at least fifty shifters thrumming wildly. It was dark, but my eyesight was sharp, and even with the bass and drum beat from Nine Inch Nails’s Closer pounding away, I could hear the hitch in Dexter’s breathing.
“He…he’s been gone since…since we argued.” His handsome face screwed up and he sighed. “Not argued. That trivializes it. Since…since I rejected you.”
There was genuine shame and remorse in his voice and new tear tracks trailing down over the ridge of his cheekbones. I was surprised by the emotion and also frustrated that this was the moment he finally chose to address the elephant in the room.
But also…
“What do you mean he’s been gone?”
Broader shoulders than mine rose and fell. “He went into hibernation or something. I haven’t connected with him in over a century. He…” I watched Dex swallow roughly. “I haven’t shifted since then.” Long, elegant fingers rubbed at his chest, just beneath his ribs. “But he’s back. He’s awake.”
I felt sick. The thought of being without my dragon for…hell, for any amount of time was not a pleasant one. And he had been without his for a hundred years?
“Oh my God, Dex…”
He shook his head, holding up a hand to stop me as I stepped into his personal bubble with the intention of comforting him. “I deserved it. I ignored him, and I hurt you, and—”
“That’s like losing a limb. A part of your soul. Something devastating,” I argued back, still horrified. “I mean, if you couldn’t connect with him, that means you haven’t been able to shift or fly or—”
“It doesn't matter,” he was grinning widely, still rubbing his chest. “He’s back, Sage!”
“What changed?” I demanded, my mind still reeling at his admission. Why hadn’t he said anything before? “What…what were you thinking or feeling or…Gods, I don’t know. Just…what woke him up?”
Dexter shrugged, then collapsed back against the railing overlooking the impromptu dancefloor-slash-orgy space beneath us.
His entire posture was the most relaxed I had ever seen it.
“I don’t know,” he answered, “but” —he fanned at his face, then lifted the collar of his t-shirt and shook it a bit, seemingly distracted— “I won’t make the mistake of ignoring him again. ”
I frowned. “About what?”
“Anything. Whatever he wants, he gets.” With his hand still moving his collar for airflow, his eyes focused back on me.
Suddenly, my snarky, pain-in-the-ass best friend was wearing another uncharacteristically serious expression.
“And he wants you, Sage. If I’m putting all my cards on the table, I want you, too.
I was…I was a fool to turn you down when you told me how you felt.
I was scared, and I loathed that I could never give you the children I knew you desired, and—”
“Whoa. Now? We’re doing this now?” I waved a hand at our surroundings, bewildered for an entirely different reason. “You’ve picked a ridiculous time and place for this, Dex.”
Instead of looking at all apologetic or sheepish, he just smirked and reached for me, tugging at my shirt and pulling me into his space until we were pressed together.
I braced my hands on the balustrade on either side of his hips, afraid that we might topple over and into the crowd downstairs if he got me any more off balance.
“Now seems like the perfect time,” he practically purred.
Up close, his pupils were dilated, his eyes dark with lust. The heat of his body against mine was almost searing, even through the fabric of our shirts and pants.
Speaking of his pants, with my thigh slotted between his legs, I could feel how hard he was and…oh my God.
“Dex,” I swallowed roughly, realizing that he was grinding into my thigh, making my own cock surge to life behind the confines of my cargo shorts, “you need to stop.”
“Why?” he pouted —actually pouted, and why the hell was that expression so damn cute on him anyway? — and pressed even harder against me. “Everyone else here is having fun.”
“Having fun,” I repeated, my lips twitching despite my determination to be rational. “Having sex, you mean.”
“To-may-to, po-tah-to, or whatever they say.” His fingers released my shirt, only to grip firmly at my ass. I watched his pretty eyes flutter shut, and the sweet little whimper which escaped him as he found the friction he was looking for was almost my undoing.
“Dexter,” I tried to hold strong.
“Fuck, Sage. I’m so slick for you…”
I was forced to close my own eyes, my hands gripping the railing so tightly that I was afraid I was leaving dents in the iron.
“Please,” he whined. “Sage…my omega needs you. I need you. Please.”
It was absurd. I was an omega. The most stereotypical omega between all the dragons here in town. But hearing those words made me feel…well, more like I supposed an alpha would. The thought of Dexter —my Dexter— dripping for me…
“Fuck,” I growled out, my voice hitting a lower register than I thought myself capable of. “That’s it. We’re leaving. I’m not doing this here.”
Dexter groaned. “But we are doing this? You promise?”
There wasn’t enough willpower in the world to stop me from giving in. I’d wanted Dexter for what felt like my whole life. Even if some rational part of me worried that he would regret this, that he would hurt me like he had a century earlier, I couldn’t find it in me to say no.
Instead, I took his hand and turned to lead him down the hallway. “We’re doing this,” I replied softly. I wasn’t sure that he’d hear me over the loud music, but I added, “I promise.”
We made it outside and the cooler night air did very little to cool my building need for Dexter. In my hand, his own skin still felt hot, but as giant reptiles who breathed fire, I reveled in the warmth. I wanted to bask in it.
“Sage,” he murmured, sounding wrecked, “please don’t tell me we have to go all the way home. I don’t think I’ll make it.”
At first, I thought he was exaggerating, but when I turned to tease him, he was squirming and a deep pink flush had worked its way over his cheeks and down his neck, disappearing under the collar of his shirt.
His eyes almost seemed glazed now, and the hand not held in mine was pressed down low on his abdomen.
“It…it aches, Sage.”
I felt my jaw drop in surprise.
“Dex,” I breathed, “you’re in heat.”
He shook his head. “I can’t be. I…I don’t have…”
An alpha. He didn’t finish the sentence, but I heard the words anyway and they made my heart hurt.
For all that I loved him and had been in love with him for centuries, he hadn’t exactly been wrong when he’d said that an omega can’t give another omega what they need.
Still…
“Bee and Eric did say that with the way we’ve been playing with The Magic and releasing alphas all over the place, unmated omegas might start getting heat cycles again.
” It was a cold comfort repeating my brothers’ words when, in my fantasies, I wanted to be the reason for his sudden heat.
I wanted to be his fated mate. I wanted to have a hidden alpha side, so I could satisfy him and breed him the way his biology demanded.
His eyebrows furrowed, but he nodded slowly, then grimaced.
“Naturally, my omega would be the first to go into spontaneous heat without a mate. Further punishment for…oh, Gods, Sage, it hurts.” We were walking towards my Jeep, but his steps faltered and he gasped, his cheeks turning a darker shade under the moon’s silvery light.
“And there’s so much slick. I can’t…it feels—”
“Is everything all right?” Sergio’s mellow voice came from behind us, and I turned to find his own handsome face scrunched with concern. He looked Dexter over, his frown deepening. “Are you in pain?”
“He’s in heat,” I answered gently when Dex only seemed able to whimper, “and it sounds really uncomfortable.”
Sergio’s frown deepened and he hurried closer, wrapping his arm around Dexter’s middle on his other side. Releasing Dex’s hand, I followed Serge’s lead, and within seconds we had Dex’s weight supported between us.
My arm felt as though it was burning where it was stretched along Dex’s broad back, and goosebumps erupted over my flesh when it brushed against Sergio’s arm beneath it.
“Oh my God,” Dexter moaned, “that feels good.”
“What does?” I shared a glance with Sergio over the top of his head, feeling myself blush at how indecent Dex sounded.
“Both of you touching me. Holding me. I need…I…I need more, Sage.”
I nodded. “We’re going to get you somewhere more comfortable and private, and then—"
“Both of you,” he interrupted. “I need more of both of you. My omega needs…” Trailing off, he shuddered.
“Shit. Just the thought…I…I almost came.” His confession came out strangled, but I couldn’t work out if he was embarrassed or just that far gone in his heat.
When he craned his neck to look my way, I noticed tears trickling down his cheeks. “Please, Sage?”
Fuck. How was I supposed to say no to that? Especially when the idea of being with the pair of them was a fantasy I’d recently started entertaining myself.
I shared another meaningful glance with Sergio, who hadn’t said a word through all of this. With my eyes locked on the older man’s, I answered, “I’m good with that if Serge is.”