Fifty-Three
FIFTY-THREE
Nat
THE UBER FROM DOWNTOWN to Ladue might have been the longest car ride of my entire life. Somehow, I’d ended up in the backseat of a Ford focus with Luca, while the others scored a ride in an SUV with third-row seating. My lips felt bruised, and I was desperately aware of my dick pressing against the zipper of my tailored trousers.
There was something I had to know, though.
“Are you okay with... um, with this ?” I asked, keeping my voice down. “After what happened in the warehouse. And, I mean, in general. I understand what a weird situation this must be for you.”
Thankfully, the driver kept his thoughts to himself, and his eyes fixed firmly on the road. I didn’t really want to have this conversation with a stranger in the car, but I figured it would be a hundred times worse trying to have it in front of the others once we got back to the house.
Luca wasn’t completely sober, thanks mostly to omegas being lightweights. But he wasn’t anywhere near sloppy-drunk, either. His arresting green gaze was clear in the rhythmic slide of yellow sodium light from the passing streetlights, even if his posture was loose and unguarded in a way I’d never seen before.
“Yeah,” he said, after a thoughtful moment’s pause. “Yeah, I am. Byron and I have... an understanding , I guess you’d say. And sometimes we share people.”
He licked his lips, and I tried not to let my eyes be drawn to that perfect pink cupid’s bow.
“There are things I do in the bedroom, and things that I don’t do,” he continued. “Sometimes those things change from one day to the next. It just depends.”
I felt so incredibly out of my depth here that I couldn’t even see the shore. “But... how do I know what’s all right?”
Luca’s gaze grew faintly pitying, then faintly amused. “Well, I mean, in general, you ask . That’s kind of how the whole thing works. But as for tonight, I saw Byron’s face after he kissed you. And to be honest? I don’t think you’re going to be making many decisions tonight beyond ‘ oh god, stop’ or ‘ oh god, keep going .’”
The Uber driver seemed to be watching the road very pointedly . He cleared his throat and reached over, cranking the radio up several notches. Yet somehow, even my growing sense of mortification didn’t stop my cock from making a spirited attempt to escape its confines of cotton and wool blend.
Longest. Car Ride. Ever .
We found the others having an impromptu meeting in the kitchen after beating us here by a couple of minutes. I’d been right that my sense of awkwardness ballooned even further when confronted with the entire pack. However, it quickly became obvious that I wasn’t the subject of discussion.
“You know you’re welcome to join us, Emiel,” Mia was saying softly.
Emiel glanced over as Luca and I entered, tipping his chin in a brief acknowledgement of our presence.
“Dunno if Byron would necessarily agree with that,” he said. “Maybe soon, but not tonight. Besides, I’ve got a book to finish.”
“And a gift to try out?” Luca asked slyly.
I wasn’t sure about the context, but I was pretty confident that Emiel was blushing beneath his dark complexion.
“Maybe,” he mumbled.
Whatever the case, it sounded like Emiel wouldn’t be joining us for... whatever was about to happen. I couldn’t help a small sense of relief, because he was a friend —the kind of friend I hadn’t had for way too long. I knew we’d eventually have to come to terms with this complicated web of sexual and non-sexual relationships that seemed to be forming around us.
But I was glad it didn’t have to happen tonight .
“Okay.” Mia sounded disappointed, but understanding. “I’m holding you to ‘ soon ,’ though.”
She crossed the distance separating them and stood on tiptoes, pulling Emiel down for a kiss. I tried to examine the odd twist in my gut, but it was tangled up too tightly to identify.
“I love you, Emiel,” she said earnestly. “ We love you.”
She smiled brilliantly when Emiel scuffed a toe and whispered, “Love you, Mia.” Then, her eyes fell on Zalen.
“So, what about you ?”
Zalen looked wry, shooting a glance my way. “Nat needs to buy me dinner, first.”
Mia crumpled up a napkin that had been sitting on the breakfast bar and threw it at his head. “I’m serious!” she said.
“So am I,” Zalen told her gently. “Never, ever think it’s because I don’t want you, Mia. We both know I do. But you four still have some things to figure out before you add yet another person into the mix. And I’m not going anywhere.”
“Well,” Luca said, “I mean... it is your house.”
Zalen covered a smile and lifted one hand toward him as though to say, ‘ See ?’ “There you go. Luca gets it.”
“Maybe I should make Nat buy me dinner, too,” Luca said, mock thoughtfully.
“You’re in luck, both of you,” I told them. “It just so happens that I co-own a really good restaurant.”
Zalen let out a quiet laugh. “Handy, that. Now, go on, you crazy kids. Just don’t break anything, or I’ll have to take back your rental deposits.”
“You don’t charge us rent,” Luca pointed out.
Byron, who’d been watching the interplay, crossed his arms. “No promises,” he growled, and I couldn’t help noticing Mia’s little shiver of anticipation. Mostly because it matched mine .
Holy shit. What was I signing up for, tonight?
Zalen accepted a kiss from Mia as well, after which he and Emiel left the rest of us on our own. Once they were gone, Byron turned to Luca.
“You and Mia go get Mia’s strap from the nest. And don’t try to pretend you didn’t buy her one, because I know you did. Grab anything you want for yourself while we’re at it, and meet us in my room.” Byron’s voice still held that hint of a growl, and it was continuing to do strange things to the nerves in my spine. Gray eyes fell on me. “You. Come with me.”
He pivoted on his heel and swept past me to the door. I jerked around, following him as though tugged by an invisible string. Behind me, I could hear Luca and Mia whispering to each other.
I’d never been upstairs to the second-floor bedrooms. It had always felt like I’d be intruding. I knew Byron and Zalen were on this floor, along with Luca and Mia’s nest. And wasn’t that a strange idea?
Mia had always maintained that she didn’t need a nest. She’d been raised by beta parents and she was in a beta marriage, she’d said. Therefore, a shared beta bedroom was fine. I wondered if she’d been lying, or if she truly hadn’t known she wanted it?
When I’d come to stay in the pack’s guest bedroom after getting out of the hospital, I’d been surprised by the sheer number of pillows and blankets piled on the bed. I’d realized quickly that Mia had made the space into a kind of hybrid between a beta and an omega room. Out of curiosity, I’d tried sleeping with all of that softness—and discovered, to my surprise, that I kind of liked it.
Especially with my injuries, it was nice to be able to shove pillows under anything that felt sore until my entire body was supported perfectly. After restless sleep interrupted by nightmares in the hospital room, I’d promptly passed out and slept like the dead for eleven hours straight, surrounded by Mia’s scent.
By contrast to that cozy, soft space, Byron’s room was a monument to classic maleness. Leather and dark wood abounded; the bookshelves were filled to overflowing with hardbound tomes. A massive TV screen took up a good chunk of one wall, and an open door on the opposite wall led to an en suite bathroom. The room was large, one corner holding a king-size bed in an alcove.
My dick, which had been achingly hard for what felt like hours now, gave an insistent twitch. Byron rounded on me, raking his eyes up and down my body before holding my gaze, unblinking.
“You’ve caused a shit-ton of trouble for Mia,” he said coldly.
My cock wilted slightly. “I know.” The words were unsteady.
Byron tilted his chin to the side, assessing me. “She seems to have forgiven you. So has Luca, and that’s really saying something.”
“What about you?” I asked, my heart in my throat.
A lazy smile tugged at one corner of the alpha’s lips, reminding me why I’d first been pulled into his orbit in a long-ago singles bar. “Me? I think you might need a bit of good old- fashioned punishing before we can put all of this mess in the rearview mirror.”
“Oh, god,” I rasped, my cock surging back to full hardness, and then some.
Of course, Mia and Luca chose that moment to open the door and dart through, closing it behind them. They stopped just inside, looking from me to Byron and back again.
“So...” Luca began. “What did we miss?”
“We were just discussing appropriate punishment for Mia’s husband being a selfish ass,” Byron said.
A squirming sensation set up in my stomach, at odds with the throbbing ache in my pants.
“Byron, you know I’ve forgiven him already,” Mia said, sounding uncertain. She was carrying an armful of dark leather straps and buckles that I couldn’t make sense of.
“Ah,” Luca said, like someone who’d just had a revelation of some sort. “But maybe he hasn’t forgiven himself yet. Is that it?”
“You’d have to ask him,” Byron replied blandly, as my stomach’s twisting grew worse. “But in the meantime, I thought we could put him over the desk, and you two can take turns fucking his ass until he begs for mercy.”
“Oh... hence the need for Mia’s strap.” Luca gave a shrug. “Cool. I’m game.”
I still didn’t know what he meant by the strap , but Mia’s eyes had gone very wide.
“I... think I’m game. But only if Nat is,” she said.
There was a tight, burning feeling growing in my throat. “Anything,” I said, trying to control the quaver in my voice.
“Sounds like a yes to me,” Byron said, and a moment later he was invading my space, spinning me around and pinning me against his body, my back to his front. The hard line of his cock pressed against the crease of my ass, and I nearly whimpered.
“Now, strip for us, you two,” Byron went on, in a voice so casual he might have been discussing the weather. “Oh, and take off the straps for the second dildo, Luca. I’ll need access to Mia’s pussy later.”
I still didn’t know what he was talking about, but Mia’s eyes bugged—red staining her cheeks. “Oh, fuck ,” she whispered.
“Hot,” Luca said. “I’m going to enjoy watching this.”
Byron’s expression was hidden from my line of sight, but his voice softened a bit. “You got everything you need for tonight, Luca? Everything you want?”
A small, helpless smile flitted across Luca’s face. “Yeah, I’m good. So good. This is going to be fun.”
And then, he and Mia started stripping right in front of us, while Byron held me trapped against him. It was all I could do not to pant with need as miles of golden skin and pale skin were bared to my gaze, clothing disappearing a piece at a time.
With a jolt, I realized that it had been more than a year since I’d seen my wife naked. She had the same effect on me that she’d always had, and I could feel an embarrassing damp spot growing at the front of my trousers. Luca was a stark contrast to Mia’s curves—all lean lines and flat muscle, except for the soft flare of his hips that marked him as an omega.
I couldn’t help staring at his cock, which was small, but fully erect. It was only when Luca started sorting out the mess of straps Mia had brought with her, and buckled the contraption around her hips, that I finally understood.
“Holy fucking shit,” I said hoarsely, as she and Luca positioned the biggest dildo I’d ever seen so that it jutted out from her neat triangle of pubic hair.
“ Now he’s getting it,” Byron said from behind me. “All set? Condoms and lube are in the side table by the couch. I’ll just get this one laid out and ready for you.”
“Dibs—I’m going first!” Luca said, sounding almost gleeful in a way I’d never, ever heard from him before.
But I didn’t have time to appreciate it. Byron was already shoving me across the room to a huge, mahogany desk. A sweep of one long arm sent papers flying, clearing off the top. Then strong hands gripped the sides of my shirt and yanked . I yelped as buttons went flying, baring my chest to the room’s cool air. Those hands immediately dropped to my fly, and a moment later, my pants and underwear were dragged down around my knees.
Byron pushed my upper body down to lie draped over the desk, the chill of the wood a shock against my chest and stomach. My nipples immediately hardened into painful points.
“Hold onto the edge,” he ordered. “Don’t move your hands.”
I grasped the corners of the desk instinctively to keep from sliding backward, my body taut as a bowstring with queasy anticipation.
“Let’s get this party started!” Luca said happily, and two slick fingers shoved past the ring of my ass with no warning.
I cried out, pleasure and pain and guilt and redemption swirling around in my body like a flock of wheeling birds.
“Oh, I almost forgot.” Byron’s voice barely made it past the buzzing in my ears. “No one’s allowed to touch his cock tonight. He’ll come from having his prostate plowed, or not at all.”
The fingers inside me scissored, and a whimper escaped past my control.
The desk chair in front of me rolled out of the way, and Mia was standing there. A candy-cane colored dildo jutted out at me, right in my sight line. I craned up to look at her looming over me like a goddess, watching my humiliation unfold.
“Poor Nat,” she crooned, her fingers running through my hair in a soothing rhythm.
My eyes squeezed shut, moisture trickling from the edges as I rooted forward blindly, until my lips brushed the tip of the fake cock. I heard Mia’s sharp intake of breath. After a moment of hesitation, she fed the tip into my mouth. I groaned as more and more of it slid past my lips, stretching them wide.
I wasn’t supposed to want things like this. But... maybe it was okay, because Mia wanted them, too?
“Fuck,” Luca groaned, pulling his fingers free. Something blunt and warm replaced them, pulling a high-pitched noise from my throat. “ So hot.”
“Baby’s first spit-roasting,” Byron agreed smugly, from somewhere behind us.
Then Luca pressed his dick into my body, pushing past my resistance without mercy. At the same time, Mia pressed the dildo so deep it choked me—
And I was lost.