13. Chapter 11
CHAPTER 11
Wren
M y brain felt like it was moving in slow motion and my body was warm all over. Not the feverish discomfort, but…ready and primed to be touched.
“He’s beautiful, isn’t he?” Dean said when he caught me staring at Mateo.
Yes. Yes, he was. The man was tall, broad, and his dick was thick and heavy against his thigh as he sat watching me. When the fog of the fever had fallen away and I’d realized I was naked in the tub with the man who’d done nothing but bring me meals and make sure I was okay, my body had tightened, and my core had clenched around air. I felt hollow, empty.
And I wanted to feel what was weeping at the tip of his cock deep inside of me.
They’d said they would never force anything on me. They would never touch me without permission. Did I need permission to climb across the padded floor of the nest and climb onto his lap? I wanted to slide my slick coated core along his length, to rub my cheek against his neck so I was covered in that warm, spring scent.
What was I thinking? That was too close to completing the bond.
I wasn’t thinking. I was simply reacting to the hormone rush. Or rather my body was reacting. My hindbrain was pushing to the foreground, demanding I find release, demanding I ease the painful pressure in my uterus.
Dean moved to where Mateo was watching me and knelt between Mateo’s knees, running his hand along the alpha’s shaft. Then he lowered his head and took Mateo into his mouth.
I had the perfect vantage point to see Dean’s lips wrapped around that thick cock, his nose bumping against the knot I knew would fix everything hurting me.
I wasn’t ready. I was scared. So fucking scared.
As I watched Dean’s head bob slowly on Mateo’s length while the big alpha kept his eyes on me, I reached for one of the toys, not bothering to look at what I was grabbing, and pressed it against my folds then slid it along my clit.
A sound that was part whimper, part moan escaped my lips. Both men moaned at the sound and the explosion of my scent in the air.
More. I needed more.
My eyes glued to the two, I moved the bulbous head of the silicon toy Dean had ordered until it pressed against my tight entrance and pushed it inside slowly, sighing at the stretch, the pleasure, the easing of the clenching that had tortured me the last few days.
Sitting up, Dean sat back and watched as I pumped the plastic dick in and out, the wet sounds mixing with the sawing of my breath and the moans escaping my lips.
“Can I help?” Dean asked. “I won’t touch you anywhere you don’t want.”
Biting my lip, I considered his offer a second, then nodded. I had never had the opportunity to use one of these tools. And, while I’d had sex, I had never experienced a man the size of Mateo or even Dean. Nor had I ever experienced an alpha’s knot.
Were all my packmates as thick and long as these two? And why did that thought make me want to toss the toy to the side and beg one or both of these men to fill me in every possible way?
Hindbrain. Hormones. That was all it was…wasn’t it?
Dean crawled until he was between my thighs and settled onto his haunches. He took the toy from me and began to set a rhythm that had me seeing stars. His eyes left my face for a moment, then something else pressed against my clit. He moved a finger, and the tool began to vibrate.
Tossing my head back, I opened my mouth and cried out as a wave of pleasure washed over me, my core tightening around the silicon, pulsing as slick poured from me and soaked the bedding below.
Finally. For the first time in days, I wasn’t in excruciating pain.
But it would return. Even in the times I’d used my fingers to ease the pressure, it always returned within minutes.
Alpha. I needed my alpha. I needed my pack.
Alphas lose themselves during rut. The headmistress’s warning played in my mind.
But there was an alpha only feet away from me and he hadn’t made a single move to touch me. His fist was around his cock, and he pulled on it slowly as he watched Dean give me pleasure unlike anything I’d experienced.
Had the Center lied to us? Why scare us if the goal was for us to find a pack full of virile, fertile alphas?
“Can you think clearly?” Dean asked.
I rolled my eyes down to where he sat, still lazily pumping the tool into my core. “What do you mean?”
“If you’re worried the alphas only want to breed you, they can use rubbers. Condoms. We don’t expect anything from you that you don’t want for yourself. But your pack’s job is to take care of you. Mateo is about to lose his mind over there. And Raece and Winter are going insane through the bond with concern.”
“I don’t want Winter,” I said, the words coming out in a whine. Winter belonged to Doran and the beta hated me.
“If you’re not ready for us, we can do exactly what we’re doing. I can help you with these toys, help you through the next few days, and the two of us can stay in here with you to make sure you’re eating and drinking. We’ll follow your lead, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart. He’d called me that a few times. I’d really only seen Mateo and Raece since that first night, other than my heartbreaking run in with Doran in the kitchen. Yet, he was treating me as though I meant something more to him than my status as a breeder.
“I…don’t know,” I admitted.
His smile was sweet, warm, nothing like that cocky, lust filled smirk he’d given me on the dais during our ceremony.
“That’s okay. We have a lifetime to figure all this out. Will you let Mateo help you with this,” he said, jerking his chin toward the toy, “while I go grab the condoms? That way, if you decide you’ll let your alpha help you, we won’t have to leave you alone to grab them.”
I turned my head to look at Mateo again and something inside me felt as though it snapped into alignment, like a puzzle piece had finally slid into place. I couldn’t explain it. I didn’t understand it.
But…I wanted the huge alpha. I wanted him wrapped around me. I wanted his arms around me. I wanted him to keep me safe. I wanted him inside of me. I wanted his weight pressing me into the padded floor.
Something I hadn’t been willing to acknowledge slapped me in the face when he gave me a soft smile and winked. I felt safe with Mateo. All those times he’d come into my room, even when I’d been in the shower and completely vulnerable, he’d done nothing untoward. He’d never once made me uncomfortable.
He simply cared about my well-being and made sure I still had enough to eat when I wasn’t willing to leave my room, to face the pack I hadn’t chosen.
Before I had a chance to think, before I realized what my body was doing, my mouth opened, and one word escaped, “Alpha.”
He immediately moved closer, his hand brushing damp hair from my face. “I’m here, beautiful. Tell me what I can do. Tell me how to help.”
My core felt so empty when Dean removed the toy and left the room, presumably to seek out the condoms he’d mentioned.
“You. Please,” I whimpered as another wave of pain squeezed my torso.
“Are you sure? I can help you without…” Without sliding his cock inside of me. But that was what I wanted.
“Please,” I repeated, wrapping my fingers around his firm bicep and tugging.
He lowered his head and pressed the gentlest kiss to my forehead, to the tip of my nose, then to my lips. This was the first time any of them had kissed me. The first time I had willingly allowed any of them this close to me.
And I wanted more. I wanted all Mateo had to offer me. Today was the first time I’d spent more than a few minutes with Dean and already he’d shown me more kindness than anyone in my twenty-six years of life.
My tall alpha positioned himself between my thighs, his fingers moving through my folds and tenderly circling my clit. He then pushed a finger inside of me, his nostrils flaring as slick pooled and leaked around his fingers to dampen the padding below me even more. The entire room would need to be professionally cleaned at the end of my heat with the mixture of sweat and slick.
And now, cum.
“If I hurt you, tell me. I’ll stop. Say the word, and I’ll stop,” Mateo said, his body stretching along mine, holding his weight from me on his hands.
The velvety soft head of his cock slid along my folds, using my own slick to prepare him to enter me. When he pushed inside, I threw my head back on a moan.
“Are you okay?” he asked, and it sounded like he was speaking through clenched teeth.
“More. Please,” I begged.
Mateo lowered onto his forearms until more of his weight pressed against me, his firm chest pressed against my breasts. He was too tall to kiss me, but he pushed his fingers through my hair as he thrust his hips forward slowly, my inner walls stretching to accommodate him as more pleasure built and built at the beautiful invasion.
His muscles bunched beneath my hands as he kept his rhythm slow, his hips barely grazing against mine before pulling himself free to the tip.
I needed so much more. I needed another release.
I needed his knot.
“You two couldn’t wait until I got back?” Dean asked.
Why were we supposed to wait until he got back? My brain was so foggy, lust driving me to near madness as that pressure began to build low in my belly again, the cramps forcing all logical thought from my brain as I hooked my heels around Mateo’s back and urged him to move faster, harder, to press himself fully into me and ease the stupid effects of my biology.
Turning my eyes from Dean to Mateo, I watched as a muscle jumped in his cheek, stared at the veins bulging on his throat as though he was struggling to hold himself back. I didn’t want him to hold back…
Did I?
I’d told them to stay away. I’d been determined to weather this cycle on my own.
And then…
What the hell had happened? I’d woken up in the tub with Mateo’s arms wrapped around me and then that feeling of rightness had washed over me, erasing the fear I’d had of one of the alphas hurting me.
This felt right. The fear was completely gone. The apprehension was gone. That didn’t mean I was ready for the entire pack to join us in the nest. I wasn’t sure whether I would ever trust Raece or Doran. And Winter had yet to prove himself one way or the other to me. He hadn’t been overly kind nor cruel in the least bit.
Dean tore the foil wrapper with his teeth then nudged Mateo’s hips. My alpha pulled free from me, and I craned my neck to watch as Dean rolled the condom over Mateo’s long, thick, glistening length.
Why was the sight of Dean touching Mateo so freaking appealing? It had been watching his mouth on Mateo that sent a fresh and overwhelming wave of lust coursing through me. Perhaps the fact Dean was a beta, that he’d felt comfortable taking the humongous alpha in such a vulnerable way had proven to my omega I could trust Mateo to be gentle with me, as well.
Once the condom was fully rolled over Mateo’s cock, Dean held him and positioned him against my core, sitting back on his haunches to watch the big alpha push into me.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” Dean said, bending forward to press a soft kiss to my forehead.
He was respecting my needs, not touching me anywhere that I didn’t give him permission.
“Will you kiss me?” I asked him.
The sweetest, most heartwarming smile stretched across his face. “Sweetheart, I’ll give you anything you want.” Then he bent and pressed his lips to mine as Mateo’s hips began to pump forward, giving me what I needed, his knot pressing against my opening and nudging my clit until another release began to build.
Dean touched his tongue to the seam of my mouth, waiting for me to open for him, to give him permission to deepen the kiss further. He tasted warm and homey, the way autumn felt when the sun began to set earlier, when the sky grew gray with late season rain, and the trees glowed bright orange and yellow and red with the changing leaves.
He pulled back and smoothed his hand over the top of my head. “Do you want your alpha’s knot?”
I nodded.
“I need words, sweetheart. Tell your alpha what you want. We’ll never take anything you don’t give us freely.”
They’d told me they would never force themselves on me. I’d wanted to believe it, then Raece used his bark to force me to stand still so he could latch his teeth into my flesh, sending white hot pain radiating to my limbs.
But not Mateo. And not Dean. Mateo had been in my room no less than three times a day since I’d arrived. He hadn’t so much as forced himself on my damn couch, only set the food on the coffee table and asked if I needed anything else.
“I need your knot,” I said, turning to look into Mateo’s face, reveling in the flecks of gold in his brown irises. His long hair swept forward and tickled me as he leaned forward to claim my mouth while his hips took on a more frantic rhythm, his knot pressing further against my opening.
“Please,” I said against his lips.
A few more pumps and he grunted, shoving forward until his knot was fully engulfed by my body, locked behind my pubic bone.
The pulsing of his knot rubbed every sensitive spot inside me, sending me spiraling toward another release the same time his cock jerked, filling the condom he’d worn for my peace of mind.
He continued to kiss me; a soft purr rumbled from his chest and straight to my very soul.
Peace washed over me, the feeling of his knot swollen inside of me, his lips gently sipping at mine, and his alpha purr finally pushing the newest wave of pain and want aside. My eyes drooped; my body grew relaxed until I felt as though I was sinking into the cushions below me.
Dean sucked in a sharp intake of breath, pressing the heel of his hand to his chest as a smile blossomed on his face the moment the bond blew wide open. “There you are,” he whispered.
Mateo swept his arms below me and hugged me close, then rolled until I was sprawled over top of him. We would be locked together for a while. And for some reason, I couldn’t find a single complaint in my heart or mind.
A blanket was draped over me, and Dean pressed a kiss to my cheek before lying on the nest floor beside Mateo and me. He stared into my eyes, a slight smile on his lips, until I could no longer stay awake.
For the first time since discovering I’d been chosen by a pack, even at my older age, I fell into a restful, peaceful sleep, lulled by Mateo’s warmth and purr.