Chapter 23 Timber
Timber
I’m drenched in shock as I stare down at him—at her—at Luke, or Ollie. At the stranger lying under me with their eyes closed, holding onto me as they whimper each time I press my knee to them.
Just because I can’t feel a cock doesn’t mean Luke identifies as a woman. Though I’ve never understood things like that.
All I know is that the more I rub my knee, the stronger the smell of Luke’s slick grows, until it’s so potent that my eyes are nearly watering.
The necklace is sitting on his chest, loud and clear.
I bend my elbows, lowering myself so I can run my nose from his stomach up his chest. My nose hits a ridge of fabric as I reach the pendant, and Luke watches me with wide eyes and a scared breath.
“Where did you get this?” I rasp as I nudge the pendant with my nose.
The second I lick it, the barest traces of lavender dance over my tongue.
Luke’s head tips to the side, completely avoiding me. “It’s my sister’s,” he mumbles.
A growl snaps from me as I rear over him. “Don’t lie to me.” I draw in a ragged breath. “What’s your name? Who the fuck are you?”
“It’s me—” Luke chokes out, trembles running through his body. “Timber, I’m sorry. It’s—”
“Apologizing doesn’t mean anything right now,” I say, pulling my knee away, and I scent a fresh wave of maple syrup slick.
My mind goes blank, light vanishing from my eyes as the low hum in my body grows stronger.
I can’t go into rut. I need to talk to Luke. If I succumb to the scent of slick now, I won’t be able to hear all his excuses for what the hell is going on.
Images race behind my eyes as I try to catch up.
Kane’s grin as he plays with the lunchbox, how Kane and Ollie stared at each other at the restaurant, how he swept her up into a kiss at the rink. It’s so obvious they’re in love, but how far had they gone, and how much had they left me behind?
I grab the pendant along with the scarf, tugging at them. The chain breaks easily as the scarf unwinds from his neck. I hurl them both away, and the pendant clatters on the other side of the room.
I don’t want a single piece of lavender on his body when I have him all to myself.
My jaw tightens as I see the small red marks on his neck, and I know exactly where he got them. Kane didn’t take his eyes off me when he kissed him there.
“Ollie,” I say, and he shivers. I lean down over him, and he blinks up at me, exactly the same way he had at the rink, like he’s innocent, like he doesn’t know.
“Luke,” I say again, and his blunt nails dig into me.
“Ollie,” I whisper as I bring myself to his lips, kissing him gently as I had at the restaurant, and a sob tears from him.
“Luke,” I growl as I pull back, and tears bead at the corners of his clenched eyes. Anger fires up in me again. Even though he cries, he isn’t denying it.
“What name is it? Ollie? Luke? Or both? Do you just use whatever name you’re in the mood for when you fuck with me?” I don’t give a shit whichever gender, name, or designation he wants to go by. I just need to know what the fuck he’s doing to me.
“I’m sorry, Timber, I’m… it’s Ollie… I'm not a guy, I'm not a beta, I'm just…" Her eyes flutter closed. "It's just Ollie…”
I lift myself up, and her hands drop from my arms slowly enough that I can grab her wrists and pin them above her head.
“Timber!” she gasps, her eyes shooting open as she looks up at me in shock. “Timber, what are you—”
One tear escapes, and my heart breaks at seeing my omega so wrecked. But this isn’t my fault. I’m not the one who did this.
I’ve been furious about this omega sneaking into my house and using me, and I can’t decide if hiding her real identity is worse than hiding her designation. Why do they have to be separate things? They’re both still lies.
I need to be angrier; I have to show her my rage; I don’t want her to think that she can get away with this.
There’s a small voice inside me that’s relieved because I don’t have to fight anymore. My love for Luke and my desire for Ollie are fully merging as my omega lies pinned beneath me.
All that bullshit about them being twins. Those conversations I had with Luke about his sister, the way Luke had laughed and joked about it. And Ollie just chuckled as she talked about her brother with an air of mystery.
“Do you even have a fucking brother? Or was that all a lie? Is there anything about you that’s actually real?”
I hate how my voice cracks. I don’t want to show her my pain or for her to see that this is ruining me.
I’d been so close. I’d been so fucking close to giving in and confessing that I wanted to be with someone. After ten years of fucking emptiness, I thought I could love again. I tricked myself and nearly admitted to them I wanted to be in a fucking pack.
This is wrong. It’s so, so fucking wrong.
“Yes! I do! I have a brother, I promise, all that part is real.”
I shake my head. Whatever she says could be a lie. I’m a fucking idiot who let myself be controlled by scents again. Even though my nose was shattered, an omega still found a way to manipulate me. She’d taken my heart just as cruelly as my ex-wife had.
“How the hell am I meant to believe anything you say? The only thing I can feel that’s real is right here,” I growl as my hand sweeps down her waist to press against her crotch.
A low moan echoes from her as she squirms under me, and my cock responds instantly.
I’m supposed to be imposing, to make her understand that she should never have stepped into my life. Until my fingers follow the seam of her jeans between her legs, and I lose my mind at how soaked it is.
“Timber, I’m right here. Please, I’m right here for you. Just come and take me.”
“Don’t call your alpha’s name so sweetly if you’re not prepared to follow through,” I snarl.
Her legs spread wider, and the slick goes straight to my head. My eyes lose focus, and my cock responds as I groan. She’s fucking perfect, even in this lie.
I tip forward, claiming her mouth as mine again, our desire reflects each other’s as low moans as I drink her in. Especially as I trace the piercing in her tongue that I’ve been dying to feel since he—she—first flaunted it.
I’ve been waiting for so long to experience this, torn between Ollie and Luke, and she’s been at my fingertips the entire time.
Now those fingertips are pushing under her jeans to tear them the fuck away from her pussy. I moan as I bury into the tight gap between fabric and flesh. The rage burning through me makes me so desperate for her that I’m dizzy.
I nearly lose my balance as my fingers brush her soft clit, and the cry that bursts from her is so precious that I’m falling for her again.
Pulling away from the kiss, my face hovers directly above hers as I stroke her clit, and watch the pleasure race in a mad dash across her face.
“Timber,” she gasps, and her back arches again. She rolls her hips, rubbing against my fingers, and I want to love her even though I feel like my mind is breaking.
I push against her entrance, and I think I’m going to come as my fingertips slip inside, and her pussy spasms.
I wanted to make Luke whimper like this, and I thought I wouldn’t have a chance, but I’ve already heard it so many fucking times. I need to hear it again as she writhes under me, tugging at her arms, trying to break free.
“You’re not getting away until I’m finished with you,” I say, meeting her with a deadly stare.
Over a month of pent-up feelings wants to pour out of me. There’s so much I can do when I have her like this.
Warmth gushes around my hand, and she groans as I push my fingers deeper.
“What the hell was that? Did your slick just get thicker?” I snap, until I see where she’s looking.
I growl; hurt, pissed off, fucking disappointed that she’s staring at the bulge in my pants with wide eyes.
I lift myself up, pulling my fingers from her pussy, cupping her as I cup myself.
“This is what you’ve been after this whole time, isn’t it?” I ask as I squeeze my hard cock through my pants. It feels so fucking good that I could pull it out and fuck her right now.
“It was never about me, just about how much dick you could get, wasn’t it?”
“No!” she gasps. “No, it’s not that. I’ve been horny as fuck as well, but I don’t just want to bang you. That’s not why I came to your house. Timber, fuck. You must know how I feel about you.” Her chest heaves as I let out a bitter laugh. I can’t believe anything she says again.
“All that flirting and teasing and messing around. In the end, you just want me to fuck you.”
My eyes roll as her hips shake, and her scent blooms even more strongly. How much more powerful can it get?
“I wouldn’t have held back so much if that’s all I wanted. I need you, Timber, and it’s been so hard to stay away from you. But I did it because other things are at stake that I can’t risk. That’s why I’ve been pretending to be my brother. It’s not to hide from you!”
“What about the scent of you in my bed? Was that just you hiding from me? Or the slick in my oatmeal? Or that fucking slick-stained dish towel!? What the fuck have you been doing in my house whenever I’m gone?”
Color drains from her face, like she thought I’d never find out. My nose and tongue are so fucking broken that she probably thought she could get away with anything until she left.
I sit back, releasing her wrists as my ass lands on my heels, and run my gaze over her.
My fucking omega, laid out just for me.
“Was it fun, Ollie? Did you enjoy making me look like an idiot?”
“Timber, no!” She starts to rise, but I growl a warning.
“You don’t move until I tell you to.”
And that fucking slick of hers smells even tastier as she disobeys me, spreading her legs wider with hunger burning in her eyes.
That isn’t what I need from her right now. I told myself this was my last chance to be with Luke, and I won’t give that up just because things have turned so ugly.
I grab her knees, and she gasps as I push them together.
My hands are so big that I almost fumble as I tug at her waistband, but she lifts her hips and makes it easier to drag her jeans all the way down her legs.
As soon as they peel away from her pussy, I’m ruined. No matter what I say now, I’m not letting her go until my tongue is buried inside her.
I’m left there with her calves on my shoulders, going crazy as my rut comes knocking.
I have to stay in control, but I lower her legs, sliding her pants over her feet, and she winces as her ass returns to the tiled floor.
I hope it’s because it’s cold, and that she isn’t hurt from the fall. Worrying about her now just shows how weak I am. Even when people trick me for everything I’m worth, I can’t stop fucking caring about the ones I love.
“Now you can spread them,” I order as I release her.
Her throat bobs as she swallows her nerves, blinking up at me, giving me a full view of her, and it’s another reminder of how fucking stupid I was.
There were so many similarities between them that I thought I was going insane.
Even right down to the way they said my name.
Why didn’t I ask anything about how Luke acted compared to Ollie, or why his voice would change pitch so much?
Why didn’t I fucking ask why their scents were exactly the same?
I didn’t think about any of that shit because I was so obsessed with Luke being an omega that I never stopped to ask if Luke was even a man. But would any sane person do something like that?
Whether she’s a woman or a man, alpha, beta, or omega, I just don’t want to be lied to.
But, fuck. The way she whimpers as her feet touch the floor, either side of my thighs, how her brow furrows as her knees spread wider, and my gaze lands on her pussy; it’s all fucking heaven.
Another snarl cracks from me as she exposes herself and pushes me closer to a rut. I wondered once if Luke had a piercing on his cock, and there’s a curved barbel through Ollie’s belly button that’s close enough.
I want to go for her pussy, but I need to taste the piercing that matches the ball in her tongue.
I bend down, my forehead against her T-shirt, licking at the hard metal, savoring her cries of pleasure.
I press my finger against her entrance, and she jumps as I run it up to her clit.
Her whole pussy is drenched, and it drives me even more wild that every time I scented her like this in the past, she was just as needy as she looks now.
This is all so fucked up.
“The only honest thing about you is your body,” I say as I lift my hand, warm from her pussy. I make sure she watches me as I press two fingers against my tongue.
The world goes quiet as everything becomes her. Maple syrup is all I know as I gasp, closing my lips around her.
My eyes roll as I tip forward, my elbows hitting the tiles on either side of her ears again as saliva floods my mouth, spreading her slick around it.
Ollie opens her arms, and we don’t need any words as she pulls me back to her lips.
Her taste screws with my mind, and her tongue feeds into my mouth as she kisses me. Her slick is richer, more potent than her mouth, and her kiss helps ease that madness.
If I weren’t wearing pants, I could drop my hips and slide into her, and that thought burns through me as she clings tight.
I meet her whines with deep moans as I forget how furious I am and sink into the feeling of being with the omega I love.