Seventy-Two
SEVENTY-TWO
Zalen
I WOULDN’T LIE. I’D been worried that with all the psychological baggage and old wounds cooped up together in this nest, something would go wrong.
I knew that was just the shadow of my own wounds... mostly . But my subconscious whispered that it wasn’t an irrational fear, with Emiel and Byron’s badly hidden rivalry, Luca’s years of sexual trauma, and Nat still half-convinced that he didn’t belong here.
The scent dampeners I’d taken were holding, even if my dick was starting to get its own opinions about sitting mostly on the sidelines while the others mated one by one. It was only when Emiel fell into an alpha rut that my decision to stay clear-headed was finally vindicated.
I’d been watching Nat closely while Byron mated Mia, but he’d seemed surprisingly okay with what was happening. Maybe it was easier because he’d been with both of them, or maybe it was because Byron was still more or less in control of himself.
Whatever the case, I’d felt Nat twitch hard when Emiel started manhandling Mia. I put a hand on his arm before he could do something dangerous like try to intervene—but I could feel his muscles trembling with the need to move.
“All right?” I asked Byron, who was in a better position to answer than Mia was.
“Yeah,” Byron panted, as Luca made a spirited attempt to ride him like a rodeo bull. “Yeah, we’re... good .”
I gave Nat’s arm a warning squeeze.
“Hear that? I know it looks violent—but Byron can feel everything Mia’s feeling. He’s her mate. He’d tear this room apart if anything was happening that she didn’t want.”
Nat’s shaking didn’t abate, but he didn’t try to pull away.
He swallowed hard. “I know that’s true... but I don’t know how to watch this and not freak out. I’m not sure I can... do this.”
I hadn’t ever joined Byron and the others when they disappeared into Byron’s room, sometimes for hours at a time. But Nat and I had done enough on our own that I felt like I had a pretty good feel for how his brain worked. Following a hunch, I moved my grip from his arm to the nape of his neck.
He let out a little gasp of surprise that really wasn’t helping with my dick situation.
“I can see how difficult this is for you,” I told him. “Do you think it would be better if you had fewer choices?”
When he didn’t answer immediately, I gave another squeeze.
“Oh, god,” he choked out, and I could practically see the hormones he’d been taking win the battle against his higher brain functions. “Yes, please.”
“Good. I can do that for you, Nat.” I let go of the back of his neck. “Get those track pants off and bring me whatever you want me to use on you from the stuff on Luca’s dresser, okay?”
Nat shot a final glance at Emiel and Mia savaging each other. Then he dragged his gaze away and nodded, giving the pair a wide berth as he did what I’d asked.
Twenty minutes later, I was gently edging our pack beta with slow strokes of his leaking cock. He’d chosen the handcuffs and gag that Emiel had insisted on bringing, along with a curved vibrator with a flared base that was angled to hit a male beta’s prostate.
His eyes hadn’t wavered from Mia, who was now the center of attention from two purring alphas and a sleepy Luca. Emiel was calm now that he’d mated both omegas. Nat... wasn’t calm , exactly—but that had way more to do with the fact that I’d been holding him on the edge of orgasm than worry for Mia.
Mia was slipping into a knotting fugue, but she was watching him back, with apparent enjoyment at seeing him slowly fall apart. I couldn’t blame her; I was enjoying it, too. So much that the unused knotting sleeve sitting in the pile of toys was starting to look damned attractive.
Sometimes, being... generously endowed ... had its drawbacks. I had no business popping a knot in Nat’s ass until he was a lot more experienced at bottoming than he was now. But my knot would have a use soon enough.
For the moment, I contented myself with putting Nat out of his misery with a few hard strokes and a twist of my wrist. He convulsed, spurting so much come over my hand that it dripped down onto his toned stomach and wiry black pubic hair. After drawing out his pleasure for as long as I could, I wiped my hand clean on his discarded pants and took the gag out of his mouth.
“Better?” I asked.
“ Nngh ,” he said, possibly because the vibrator was still buzzing against his prostate.
I left it where it was, and after a few seconds, he managed to regain coherency.
“You’re putting this off,” he said. “Why?”
The question hit like an arrow.
I knew exactly what he was asking, damn him. I just didn’t have a good answer.
Biting Nat wouldn’t be a real mating bite. Not a permanent one. The plan had been for me to bite Nat once the others were mated to Mia, and we were sure everything was okay.
Which it was.
I gathered my courage and helped Nat sit up so I could remove the handcuffs. “This is harder than I thought it would be.”
“It’s only temporary with me,” Nat said, echoing what I’d just been telling myself. “That’s what we talked about, right? Bite me first, and if you can’t handle it, then it will fade on its own in a few days.”
It had made so much sense at the time. And yet...
“ Zalen .” Nat’s sober tone derailed my spiraling thoughts. “You’re allowed to not have all the answers, every hour of every day. If it’s not going to work, then we’ll know. And that’s okay.”
“I’m supposed to be the pack leader,” I said quietly.
“You are the pack leader,” he shot back.
But how could I be, if I ended up being incapable of forming new mate bonds with my old one broken?
Nat leaned back on his hands, wincing when the toy inside him shifted. “Look, you can keep obsessing about it, or you can just do it and find out if it’s going to work. Plus, I feel like I should add that this would be a really good time to share my consciousness or whatever. Because that was a fucking spectacular orgasm, and this vibrator is about thirty seconds away from giving me another one.”
I couldn’t help it—I laughed.
“Way to sell it,” I said. “And you’re right. Of course you’re right. I’m sorry if it’s coming across like my reluctance has anything to do with you personally. It absolutely doesn’t.”
He shrugged a shoulder. “Getting bitten doesn’t have the same significance for me that it would for an omega. I’m in this because it’s a way to be closer to Mia that I couldn’t have had otherwise. But it’s still temporary.”
I drew him upright, cupping the back of his skull. “You’re a good man, Nat Bell.”
“I’m honestly a pretty colossal fuck-up. But I think I’ve found a family where I can learn to be better,” he said. “Also, the clock’s ticking on that second orgasm, alpha. Now come here.”
I let him hook a hand around the back of my head and pull me into a biting kiss. At which point, my long-suffering dick decided to take the reins—instinct washing away the rest of the bullshit that had been endlessly circling in my thoughts.
It was easy to tilt Nat’s head to the side and nip my way down the side of his throat as he shuddered in reaction. It was easy to reach down with my free hand and circle his half-hard cock, pumping it with firm strokes as my teeth closed around the hard muscle at the juncture of his right shoulder.
It was easy to bite down, swallowing blood as Nat cried out, his dick pulsing weakly in my hand. The fragile connection as my saliva flowed into his beta bloodstream didn’t hurt. There was no electric jolt of agony as something touched the old, torn tissue of my bond with Julie for the first time in years.
Instead, there was a secondhand flush of pleasure and relaxation from two solid orgasms, paired with the gruff affection of a man who was better than he seemed to think he was. Shared love for Mia, shared friendship with Emiel, shared fond exasperation for Byron.
Speaking of whom...
“Oh, are we biting Nat now?” Byron crawled through the sea of pillows, naked and tattooed with his limp dick hanging down. Luca must have released his knot while Nat and I were... occupied. I glanced over to find both omegas curled up with Emiel, dead to the world until their next peaks approached in a few hours.
“You can wait your turn, you self-centered— argh !” Nat’s grousing was cut off as Byron grabbed him and flipped him over onto a mound of cushions, ass in the air.
“I did,” Byron said smugly, and promptly bit into one round butt cheek
Nat yelped and flailed. “What the fuck ! Oh my god, you complete asshole !”
Byron gave him a long, lascivious lick before pulling away. “You’re a beta. It doesn’t matter where I bite you. And this way, you’ll have something to remember me by for a few days.”
“Every time I fucking sit down!” Nat complained, finally managing to right himself. “Fucking ow !”
Through the hazy bond, I felt Byron’s smug amusement. And beyond, barely perceptible, two sated, sleeping omegas with Emiel a contented presence in the background. Unable to help myself, I started laughing, and found that I couldn’t stop.