Chapter 55
FIFTY-FIVE
As I watch Maverick and Crystal exchange bites, I tear up. I am so incredibly happy for them both.
But jealousy also swirls in my gut.
I can’t be bitten in. This is why Betas aren’t typically part of packs.
And I know all of them want me to be a part of this—they have said it so many times—but what if that changes now that they’re bonded? What if they both decide that they don’t need me anymore?
Watching the two of them kiss and touch and whisper beautiful stories of love and affection to one another now that they’ve exchanged bites makes me feel as if I am intruding on something. I stand and try to slip out of the room.
A hand wraps around my ankle.
“Where are you going?” Maverick asks roughly. “Come here.”
“No, it’s okay,” I say, trying not to look at him. “I’m just giving you two a moment.”
“Be a part of our moment.” I risk a look down at him and see him gazing at me earnestly. “Be a part of our moment,” he repeats.
“No, this isn’t for me. This is Alpha and Omega stuff.” I try again to step out, but Crystal grabs my other ankle.
“Then it can be Alpha, Omega, and Beta stuff,” she says, tugging gently. “Come lie with us.”
I groan, yanking my fingers through my hair.
Wouldn’t it be nice if I could lie with them and have everything work out?
But that’s not this world.
I love them.
Fuck, I love them both.
But once their whole pack bonds, why do they need me?
“Are you doing that thing where you think Betas aren’t supposed to be in packs, so you’re trying to distance yourself?” Crystal asks because, apparently, she’s a mind reader.
“No, he wouldn’t be,” Maverick answers her before I can. “Because if he were, we’d have to do something drastic to show him what an idiot he’s being and how important he is to us.”
I swallow, my knees turning liquid as he purrs out his threat. He clambers off of Crystal and rises to his feet in front of me, all long, thin, naked limbs. I can’t stop myself from letting my eyes drag down his body, stopping on his hard cock, dripping in Crystal’s slick.
My mouth waters.
What do they taste like together?
Crystal crawls on her knees to me and wraps her arms around my legs, pulling until I fall to the floor with her. She grabs my face. Her eyes are foggy, her skin on fire, both clear signs she’s fallen into her induced heat. “How should we show him how much he means to us?” she asks Maverick without taking her eyes off of me. “Should I kiss him?”
“Oh, for sure,” the Alpha replies, looking down at us. Crystal grabs my mouth with hers, slowly moving her lips until mine follow, and our tongues stroke against one another. Eventually, she pulls away, but I chase her as she laughs. “Oh, he liked that,” Maverick says throatily. “But he needs something else, I think.”
While I’m distracted listening to him, Crystal is digging my aching cock out of my pants, stroking it with a hand that’s soaked with her slick. My head falls back, and my eyes close with a moan at the delicious feeling.
“Just like that,” Maverick says, placing his hand on the back of my head. “Keep that angle.” I open my eyes to see the Alpha standing over me, his cock inches from my face. “Open your mouth,” he whispers. I shudder, the combination of his heady voice and the stroke of Crystal’s hand making me damn near drunk with pleasure.
My mouth falls open.
He steps forward, legs on either side of my bent knees, and tentatively places his cock right on my lips.
I know this is the first time with a guy for both of us, and while Maverick has definitely received blow jobs before, he knows I haven’t given one and is moving slowly, so I have time to protest if I need to.
But when I dart my tongue out to taste the tip, where their pleasures mix, I know I will never, ever protest this.
I lick down the shaft and then reach forward, gently touching Maverick’s hip and encouraging him to push further into my mouth as I use my other hand to grab his base. He groans loudly, and the satisfaction I get knowing I made that sound come out of him will make me smug for a week.
Crystal’s hand is still pumping my cock, but I can see out of the corner of my eye she’s using her other to rub circles on her clit as she watches us. Her cheeks are red, and her chest is blotchy.
She’s falling further into a haze. It won’t be long before she needs all her Alphas to satisfy her.
I give Maverick a soft suck, then circle my tongue around him before I pull off of his dick. “I think our Omega needs us,” I say, my hand still pumping his cock at the pace she strokes mine.
“Yes, yes,” she groans, spreading her legs wide. “Need you. Need you both.”
“Both?” I ask, looking between the two of them. “How?”
Maverick’s eyes light up, and he pushes me backward until I fall against some of Crystal’s fluffy black pillows. “Oh, I’ll show you how, my beautiful Gagey boy,” he coos. I blush at the endearment that I probably shouldn’t love as much as I do. “Ride his dick, Omega.”
She obeys instantly, throwing one leg over me and sliding down on me with no resistance. She’s gushing slick, and it makes indecent noises as I thrust up into her. Maverick appears over her shoulder, putting a hand in the middle of her back and pushing her down.
“Lie on his chest, Omega. Be still,” he purrs.
This is a different Maverick than the dizzying, goofy one we see on a daily basis.
This is Alpha Maverick, and it’d be impossible not to obey him.
I wrap my arms around Crystal’s waist and hold her against me. “What do you want me to do?” I ask him as I feel his knees pressing against my legs.
“Nothing at all,” he remarks before the indescribable feeling of his hard length brushing against mine overwhelms me. “Okay, Omega, big stretch now,” he moans into her ear as he pushes into her pussy right on top of me. I can feel his length rub against mine in a delicious, toe-curling sensation that is only made better by the way Crystal clenches around both of us.
The sound that comes out of her isn’t quite a scream, but it’s close, and her eyes squeeze shut as her head falls back. She’s breathing hard, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she pants through the sensations. “So full,” she moans. “So full. So good.”
She’s lost in a swirl of pleasure.
I’m not doing any better. I’m groaning and moaning every time Maverick’s cock slides out and then back in. I’m completely still. I can’t even begin to make my brain work well enough to coordinate movements with my Alpha.
“I love it when you make that sound,” he says, and it takes me a moment to realize he’s talking to me.
“What sound?”
“That whimper. Like you’re going to fall apart. Like you’re desperate for us.”
I want to scream at him that I am going to fall apart.
I am desperate.
But I don’t need to.
He’s clocked me. That glint in his eyes tells me he already knows, and he was giving me plausible deniability.
“Knot,” Crystal cries out, fingernails digging into my chest. “Need your knot, Alpha.”
Maverick groans, his thrusts picking up speed. My fingers dig into Crystal’s hips as I try to ground myself through the overwhelming onslaught of pleasure.
“If you’re still in there when I come, you’ll be stuck,” Maverick pants. “Do you want that?”
“I’m not ready to feel your knot,” I answer before I can even think. “I’ll pull out.”
“Come first,” he says over the sound of Crystal’s pleasure. He reaches around her and finds her clit, his hand bumping against me as he expertly strokes her. Just when I think I can’t hold on anymore, he pinches her, and she screams in pleasure, her cunt somehow getting tighter, and I spill myself inside her.
“Holy fucking shit,” I pant as Maverick keeps thrusting his hard cock against my softening one. “Oh my god.”
“Get out of there, Gage,” he grunts out, and I reach down, pulling my cock from Crystal. She whines, crying about not being full enough as soon as I do. “I got you, Omega, don’t you worry,” our Alpha tells her.
Two more thrusts and Maverick stills with several loud groans, and Crystal screams again, tears running down her cheeks.
“My Alpha,” she cries, collapsing on top of me. Maverick follows her and rolls to the side, sandwiching her between us as he spoons her. “I can’t believe you’re my Alpha.”
Maverick nuzzles her neck, and again, I feel like I’m seeing something I’m not supposed to. But before those thoughts can run away from me, Crystal opens her eyes, and they’re not foggy at all.
They’re crystal clear.
“My Beta,” she murmurs. “My hero.”
“You saved yourself,” I reply, rubbing her nose with mine.
“I don’t mean today. I mean the seventeen times you tattooed me. You gave me back my body, my autonomy.” She kisses me achingly softly. “I love you, Gage Matthews. I love you from the tip of your freckled nose to the toenails you always talk about spitting up.”
“I see what you mean about that being a gross joke,” I laugh.
“The fact stands. I love every part of you, bad jokes and all.” I brush my hand across her sweaty face and cup her cheek. As she melts into my touch, I remember first meeting her.
“Have you ever had a moment where you knew it was important while in it? You can’t explain why, but something tells you it’s a canon event. That it will be the moment you look back at and think, ‘Oh yeah, that’s where it started’?”
She shakes her head, clearly confused, but doesn’t say anything.
“For me, that was the first time I ever saw you. I knew we were kindred spirits, and now that I know about your parents, my mom, and our opposite siblings, I recognize that we were always meant to complement one another. I’ve never believed in fate. I believe in science because it’s stupid not to, and I believe in the magic that brings a pack together and an Omega to their Alphas. I do believe in all of that. But I have to believe that fate brought us together. I refuse to think that you wouldn’t be in my life if you had found a different tattoo shop online.”
Tears run down my cheeks, but I don’t wipe them away. I grab her face, pulling us as close together as possible, going cross-eyed in an attempt to keep looking at her.
“Maybe that’s why I have told myself so many times I can’t get involved with Omegas. Why I’ve been so worried you will all toss me on my ass. I’m pre-emptively rejecting myself, so I didn’t go through the pain of not being able to have you.” I kiss the tip of her nose and stroke my thumbs down her cheeks. “Crystal Manson, I’ve never believed in fate. And then you walked through that door. And now I know that fate believed in me.”
Crystal’s breath stutters, her chest still against mine. I can hear the soft exhale of a sleeping Maverick behind her. She opens her mouth several times, clearly searching for words to say in response to my declaration, but I don’t need to hear anything else from her.
I know now that we’ll never be parted.
Eventually, sweet, slow tears run down her cheeks, and she burrows her face into my neck. Her teeth pinch the skin but don’t break through. I don’t know if she’s lost in her instincts again, thinking she can bond me with a bite, or if she’s gnawing on me as a way to soothe herself. But eventually, she stops, sighing heavily, eyelids drooping.
“Hey, Gage?” she whispers, voice thick with sleep.
“Yeah, Crys?”
“I’m glad you stole my number out of my file.”