Fifty-Four
FIFTY-FOUR
Emiel
I COULD DO THIS. The second dampener shot was working okay. Ish . That idea lasted until I started down the hallway to Luca’s nest. And... yeah. Maybe not. The scent of the heat nest hung in the air like fog.
That was all right, though. I’d tell Zalen, and he could throw on some respectable clothes and carry Mia downstairs so Nate or Nat or whatever could see she was safe. Zalen wouldn’t rip the guy’s lungs out. He never got upset about anything. Or, I mean, he did get upset by things. But he never showed it.
Based on the sounds and smells that I hadn’t totally been able to avoid inside the house, I was pretty sure Mia was several hours into the recovery from her first peak, but not quite ready for the second. She was more likely to be lucid now than she would be later.
Okay. I could knock on the door, back up a few steps into the hallway so I wouldn’t trigger their territoriality too bad, and tell Zalen what was happening. Then I could get back to the basement and pull myself together for a few minutes before I needed to leave for the Hope Project.
Easy.
I took a shallow breath of pheromone-laden air and knocked on the door. A low growl came from inside, followed by a rhythmic series of high-pitched cries. I froze in place.
The door opened, revealing Byron. His body filled the doorway in a way it had no business doing for an alpha as skinny as he was. His teeth were bared in warning. He looked feral. He looked like he’d swelled up to half again his normal size... like he was looming over me.
He looked like my ste—
I cut off that thought with extreme prejudice, even as fight or flight instinct flooded my muscles and nerves. My hands itched to clench into fists.
“What the fuck do you want, Emiel?” Byron snapped. Just like that, the illusion was broken, and he was my bitchy roommate again. “We’re a bit busy in here.”
Behind him, Luca let out a wail that sounded like he was dying. Completely against my will, my attention focused beyond Byron, to where Luca was writhing and panting on Zalen’s dick.
I took two hasty steps back, even though moving felt like pulling three-inch nails out of my flesh.
“ Emiel .” Byron’s voice was a snarl. “What. The fuck . Do you want .”
My heart felt like it was pounding too hard for me to get words out. I tried anyway.
“Mia’s husband is here. He’s worried for her. Wants to see she’s okay or he says he’ll call the cops.”
Byron stared at me. “Jesus Christ. Are you kidding me?”
“I thought maybe Zalen could...” I trailed off. Zalen was balls-deep in Luca, and probably knotting him by now. He wasn’t going anywhere. “Or you could... take her downstairs. If... if she’s lucid, I mean. And if she wants to see him.”
Byron was looking at me like I needed a straitjacket. He wasn’t far wrong.
“I can’t do it. I’d punch him in the face,” he said. “Or maybe throw her down on the floor and knot her right in front of him, to show him how it’s supposed to be done. You can get back down there and tell him to go fuck himself, as far as I’m concerned.”
“And if he calls the cops on us?” I asked, trying to keep my shit together. Luca was moaning and sobbing pathetically now, like someone exhausted beyond endurance from the throes of ecstasy. My dick throbbed, so urgent it was painful.
“Whass wrong?” Mia’s voice slurred from within the nest. “Why is Emiel upset?”
At that point, my heart decided to get in on the action, stuttering and thumping. She knew I was here. She was worried about me .
Byron turned. “Your piece-of-crap husband is here checking up on you, rom-com girl. It’s okay, though. You don’t need to see him.”
“Nat’s here?” The words held a hopeful tone. “He came?”
“Yeah,” I said gruffly. “He was worried.”
“Like I said, you don’t need to see him,” Byron repeated, with a glare at me for good measure.
“I want to see him!” She sounded younger. Innocent. All her barriers stripped away.
Zalen’s voice was a soothing rumble from deeper in the room. “Byron. She’s not a prisoner in the nest. She can see anyone she chooses. Emiel. Can you take her down?”
Luca made a discontented noise, and Zalen shushed him tenderly. My throat ached.
“Yeah,” I rasped, because that was the fastest option for me to get away from this room.
Byron stood poised, looking like he still wanted to forbid it. But he wasn’t in charge here, and we both knew it.
“I’ll get her one of my shirts to wear,” he said eventually, and stalked back into the nest.
A few moments later, he reappeared with Mia cradled in his arms. She was covered to mid-thigh with a silk button-down the color of cranberries that smelled like fennel and anise. I cautiously came closer, aware of what a stupid, stupid idea this had turned out to be. She reached out toward me with a loopy smile, and the constriction around my heart squeezed tighter.
“Emiel,” she said happily.
It felt like Byron had to force himself to hand her over to me. And I couldn’t blame him. I wouldn’t hand her over to me, either.
“Hi, Mia,” I managed, as rich perfume like the flowers that used to grow behind our apartment building surrounded me.
“Hi,” she said, snuggling into my arms and rubbing her cheek against my chest like a cat. “Why won’t you come in the nest with us?”
“I don’t do that,” I told her, past the white noise buzzing inside my head.
She made another unhappy noise, and her slender arms wrapped around my neck.
“Emiel.” Zalen was still speaking in that soothing tone designed to keep Luca calm. “Are you going to be okay with this?”
“Yeah,” I said. “We’ll just be a minute.”
Mia hummed sleepily as I turned and headed back down the stairs, aware of Byron’s rumble of displeasure behind us. Her perfume and her solid weight in my arms were all I could focus on.
“I wish you’d come in the nest,” she said plaintively, pressing the words against the collar of my shirt.
I was going to have to change clothes after this to get rid of her scent. Probably shower again, too, before I’d be able to string two thoughts together. The cotton of my briefs dragged against my aching cock with every step.
The distance to the front door felt like it stretched on and on until it covered miles. When we finally got there, I made sure Mia was covered by Byron’s shirt as much as she could be.
“Your husband’s outside,” I said. “That’s where he’s gonna stay, and we’ll stay inside. Okay?”
She made an ambiguous mewling noise and rubbed against me again, her hair brushing the skin of my throat and sending sparks along my nerves.
I gritted my teeth and opened the door.
Whassisname was kicking his heels on the porch, looking like he was about ten seconds from crawling out of his own skin. I could relate.
He whirled on us. “ Mia ?”
“Nat!” she said happily, reaching for him.
His hand lifted to meet her, but he caught himself and jerked it back down to his side before I could even growl. It clenched into a loose fist, squeezing and releasing nervously.
“Mia, I had to check on you when that alpha texted to tell me you’d gone into heat early,” he said. “Are you okay?”
I felt her nod against my chest.
“Nat, I’m so good ,” she said, earnest and unguarded. “It’s so good here . I wish you could be here, too...”
I sent Nat a flat stare to reinforce just how much that would not be happening. I guess I didn’t need to bother, though, because Nat already looked like he’d been kicked in the chest.
“Okay,” he said. “Okay, Mia. I just had to make sure you really wanted to be here, and that they’re treating you right.”
Mia shifted in my arms, rubbing more of her body against me. My dick swelled, trapped painfully in the confines of my clothing.
“Of course I want to be here,” she said dreamily, nuzzling at me. “This is my pack. You should have a pack, too, Nat.”
I suddenly couldn’t get enough oxygen.
“You need to leave now,” I told the devastated beta standing on our porch. My voice was a hoarse rasp.
There was a heavy pause.
“Yeah,” Nat whispered. “Okay. I’m leaving. Thank you for—” His voice cracked. “Thank you for taking care of her.”
He might as well have been speaking Swahili, but I nodded like an automaton and turned, shoving the door closed with my foot and resettling Mia in my grip so I could engage the lock and deadbolt.
Mia purred, her body shifting and sliding against me with more focused intent. Her scent, already overwhelming, sharpened even further. I headed into the house, knowing in some distant part of my brain that I needed to get her back to the nest right the fuck now .
That didn’t explain why every step felt like it was taking me closer to the gallows.
“God, Emiel,” Mia moaned. “N-need you to touch me. Please, Emiel... I’m so horny. It aches so bad.”
The staticky white noise in my brain rose higher, blotting out my thoughts. Elderflower and sumac were everywhere... in my nose, on my tongue, coating the back of my throat. The entrance to the TV room loomed on my left. There was a sofa inside. I had to put Mia down. Go tell one of the others to fetch her before—
A playful omega puppy growl was all the warning I got before sharp teeth closed on the tendon running along the side of my neck and bit down. Hard .
The world whited out.