Chapter 54
FIFTY-FOUR
“So he was the head of the trafficking arm?” I ask incredulously, pulling my blanket tighter around me. I’m still naked, but when I tried to put on clothes, it felt like I was rubbing my skin with sandpaper.
“Yeah, it appears so,” Puck replies from his position opposite me in my tiny nest. With him in here, it is abundantly clear that we are too big a pack for this place. “Kieran kept things very siloed. I was over Prism, and I like to think I was his most trusted employee because I did more for him than Ricky ever did, but I had no idea about Tyler.”
“How did I not know? I mean, he came here. He spent heats with me here.”
Growls fill the air, and Gage slides close to me, pulling me tight against his side. “Hey, maybe we don’t mention having sex with a dangerous trafficker who shot your Alpha while we’re in your nest, huh, babe?”
I wince. “Understood.” I kiss his cheek softly, and he hands me a hard cherry candy. I immediately suck it into my mouth and move it around with my tongue until it rests comfortably in my cheek.
Manny is pantless as Puck wraps his leg in gauze. “I think my blood is keeping you lucid,” he says as he watches Puck’s skilled hands. “Must be some sort of instinctual thing to keep you from going into heat if your Alpha can’t help you.”
“Instincts are wild,” Maverick butts in. “If I’ve learned anything today, it’s that we’re not as far away from our shifter ancestry as we think. You were basically a wild animal. It looked like a tiger had gotten in and -”
“Andddd, we’re done with that!” Gage says, pressing his bare foot on Maverick’s face since his arms are busy holding me. “No one needs to think about that.” My DJ licks the sole of Gage’s foot, which has him cackling and yanking it away swiftly.
“So what, you think I’m going to fall into heat as soon as I can’t scent your blood in the air anymore? Fuck, I do sound like an animal.” I chuckle and bite into the candy with my front teeth. “Guess I better practice my chomping.” I crunch down on the candy as the men look at me with shocked expressions. “What?”
“Practice your chomping?” Manny asks. “Do you mean-”
“That I’m gonna bite y’all? You bet your fucking ass I do.” I bite down hard, letting the candy shatter in my mouth.
Maverick groans, crawling the short distance to me and caging me in. “That’s fucking hot, cherry bomb.”
“Cherry bomb?”
“Cherry candy, and after you were done with Kieran, it looked like a bomb had gone off.” He sits back on his heels. “Cherry bomb. Pretty clever, right?”
Silence fills the nest as the four of us gape at the Alpha.
And then it’s overrun with laughter.
“Holy fucking shit, Mav,” Gage says between gasping laughs, “I can’t… Where do you come up with this stuff?”
He taps his temple and gives me a shit-eating grin. “One hundred percent genuine Maverick Reilly. Do you like it?” His voice dips in earnest, and I can’t help but wiggle out of Gage’s arms and softly kiss him.
“I love it,” I say honestly. “It’s also a really good song.”
Puck snorts before sitting back on his heels. “Alright, Manny, you’re all patched up. My stitches aren’t great, but they should hold. We need to keep it dry,” he tells Emmanuel. “And now we need to get you cleaned up of the blood and prepare to lose Crystal to the drugs and heat when we do.”
“Wait,” Manny says, stopping Puck from urging him out of the nest. “You want our bites?” His eyes are full of yearning, and I clamor to my feet, letting the blanket fall from my naked body.
“Of course I do, Alpha,” I whisper as I brush my lips across his. “And you want mine?”
“Without a doubt.”
“Okay. Then we’ll bond. As soon as you get cleaned up.” Emmanuel groans, his hands running down my arms to grip my waist.
“And you want to fuck all of us?” Maverick asks from behind me.
“Yes.”
“At the same time?” That’s Gage.
My stomach clenches with a cramp as delicious visions swim in my head. “Absolutely, yes.”
“And me?” Puck’s voice is tentative. It’s strange to hear that tone from someone who has been such a powerful figure in my life. “Do you want me here?”
“Woah, sorry, must’ve missed you when I said all of us.” I roll my eyes at the big Alpha. “Of course, I want you here, Alpha.”
Maverick chuckles and pats Puck on the back. “She’s kind of snarky when she’s horny, it’s hilarious.”
“She’s snarky all the time,” he mutters.
“Anything off the table?” Emmanuel asks, getting us back on track. “Anything you don’t like, don’t want to do?”
I suck on my teeth, thinking honestly. I appreciate Emmanuel’s desire to get my full consent to ensure we’re all on the same page before we dive into this. I rub my neck, wincing at the memory of Kieran’s hands on me. “No choking. No impact play, either. No degradation.” My face heats, and I duck my head, not wanting to look any of them in the eye. “Honestly, guys, with everything that’s happened, it’s gonna have to be pretty vanilla. Emotionally, I don’t think I can handle…”
“Oh no, poor us, we have to worship our Omega, piling affection, attention, and praise on her.” Maverick throws his hand over his head, swooning onto the floor of the nest. “How will we ever survive such horrific deprivation?”
Snorting, I nudge him with my big toe until he peeks an eye from under his hand. “You don’t mind that I’m not into all kinds of crazy stuff in bed?”
“You’re not into it now,” he says with a shrug before grabbing my foot and lightly kneading the sole as I use Emmanuel for support. “But even if you never are, I don’t care. I love you, not what you do in the bedroom.”
My chest tightens, and my eyes start to burn. “You love me?”
“Cherry bomb, I am so fucking in love with you that I want to give you my kidney just so that I can be inside you forever.”
It takes a moment for his words to sink in. That’s not the type of romantic declaration I expected the first time a man told me he loved me, but Maverick isn’t like any other man.
The sentiment is so perfectly him that my cheeks heat, and I drop to my knees, pressing my body against his.
“I love you, too,” I whisper against his lips before I push ours together. “I love you in the way that sunflowers love the sun. I will always turn to you.”
His hands wrap around my lower back as he groans and pulls me tight against his pelvis. I hear whispers from the others, and in the back of my mind, I notice the metallic smell of Emmanuel’s blood lessen. He must’ve left the room.
“You have to be naked too,” I pant against Maverick’s mouth. “Please.”
He sits us up awkwardly, and I balance on his lap as he rips his shirt off. I shuffle to my knees so he can pull his loose shorts down before settling back on his bare skin. His cock is hard already. I rock against it, letting it slide through my slit, teasing both of us at the same time.
Maverick buries his face in the crook of my neck, groaning as he scents me. “You smell so good.” His voice is gravelly and raw. “Smells like mine. Mine, mine mine,” he chants, reminding me of our first time together. His fingers slip between my thighs, running through the slick that is dripping from me. “All this slick, and all for me. Because you’re made for me.”
Before I can respond, I’m on my back, Maverick on top of me, arms braced on either side of my head. He’s got a wide, wild smile, and his hair is already sticking out in every direction. He dips his head and sucks one of my nipples into his mouth, and I palm the back of his head reflexively. He moans against my flesh, his movements clumsy as he’s overwhelmed by desire.
He rises on his knees after laving both of my nipples with attention, grabbing my hips, and pulling me close to him. “I’m sorry, cherry bomb, but I have to be inside you right now. I need you. I can’t wait.”
“Don’t wait,” I reply.
He doesn’t.
Maverick fills me with one smooth movement, and my body melts under him. Memories of our first time together assault me, of the fear and sadness I felt along with the pleasure.
I was convinced that would be the only moment I got with this incredible Alpha.
And now he’s above me, in my nest, thrusting his cock deep inside me and ready to take my bite.
“Bite, Omega. Bite, bite, bite,” he chants, just like he did all those weeks ago.
“Yes, Alpha,” I say through a soft moan, taking his face in my hand. “Bite. Make me yours.”
His brown eyes soften, his pouty mouth frozen in shock, like he expected me to turn him down after everything we’ve been through. “Really?” He stops moving, dropping down to press his body flush against mine while still inside me.
“Maverick, quit second-guessing yourself,” I admonish softly. “I’m not going to reject you. I’m never going to reject you again.”
Tears well in his eyes, and I can’t stand it anymore.
I can’t stand him not being mine for one more second.
I grab his arm and bite right on the top of his forearm, where everyone will see it when he’s mixing tracks for a set.
Where he will always be able to look down and remember that he is mine and I am his.
He cries out, but I cannot tell if it’s in joy, pain, or ecstasy. A moment later, I feel a sharp pain radiating from my bicep and look down to see Maverick clamped onto it. He pulls away, and whatever science or magic it is that ties us together lights up.
I feel him in my soul.
Maverick Reilly is my Alpha.
Now and forever.