Chapter 61 Marcus
MARCUS
Max let out a tremulous breath. “That was scary.”
Marcus hugged him closer, kissing the top of his head. They were at the private airport outside of Fairbanks, waiting for Harland and Warren’s flight.
“Very,” he agreed.
It had come out of nowhere. One minute they had been eating an early dinner, making plans for a run and hanging out with William, and then the next thing they knew, their connection to Warren blossomed into a full bond and the entity from Florida was right there with him.
Having that thing touching their bonds had felt like being dipped into a well of black tar and swished around. Marcus had never felt so helpless, which was saying a lot given the absolute clusterfuck of the past week.
There was just nothing he could do in the face of something like that.
“Warren said it wanted to be friends?” Max asked, still incredulously hung up on that detail. “Do you think he understood it correctly?”
“Who knows,” Marcus said. He didn’t understand it himself. It sounded like Warren had had a conversation with the entity, or at least been left with the impression that he did.
“It didn’t do anything,” Max said, a statement he had repeated five times now. “I mean, it did something, but it didn’t do anything bad.”
Marcus had never heard of an omega with a werewolf-style mating bond. Omegas could be claimed, and there was obviously something supernatural going on with them, but they didn’t sync up the way werewolf mates did.
Except apparently, they could. With a little help from a cosmic horror.
“What do you think it meant that Warren is feeding on us?” Max asked.
Marcus shrugged helplessly. He had no idea. From an outside perspective, maybe that was what omegas looked like to something like the entity? After all, Warren did need to have sex with them. Maybe the entity perceived that part of their connection as a form of feeding?
“No clue,” he said.
“I wish they would hurry up,” Max grumbled. He refreshed the page tracking the plane Harland and Warren were on board. They had taken off and were in the air, but it would be hours and hours before they arrived.
Max put down his phone and got up to pace. The airport waiting lounge was sparse but comfortable, with snacks, coffee and drinks on a counter and a large window showing the runway outside.
Marcus’s phone rang with an incoming video call from Warren. He answered the call immediately, Max sitting down next to him and crowding in close, and after a few seconds of a spinning circle and a connecting message, Warren and Harland popped up on his screen.
Harland was dressed in his usual leather biker getup, with his suit unzipped down to the top of his pecs, the warm overhead light casting shadows under his cheekbones. Warren was on his lap, holding the phone and angling it so that both of their faces were in frame.
“Hi, guys!” Warren said, grinning at them. “We’re on our way. We should be there in about five hours.”
The cheerful attitude took Marcus by surprise.
“Good,” he said. He moved the phone a little further back so that Max’s face was in frame as well. “Can you give us a rundown on what happened?”
“No summaries this time,” Harland – who had evidently already gotten a quick version of events – added. “Everything you remember as close to word-for-word as you can get it.”
Warren nodded and placed his hands on Harland’s arm across his stomach as he pulled his thoughts together.
“I was out shopping when I felt something watching me. I thought it was Harland at first, but then I didn’t see him-”
“You should have called me,” Harland interrupted. His voice was stern and as he spoke, he tightened his hold on Warren’s body against his chest.
“I thought I was being paranoid after everything that happened,” Warren defended himself. He patted Harland’s arm, placating. “Next time I feel something like that, I’ll call. I promise.”
“And then?” Marcus prodded.
“Yeah, what happened?” Max added.
Warren went on to explain how he’d slipped into a store and then into a café. As he narrated his encounter with the entity, Marcus was at a loss.
He’d never heard of anyone communicating with any of the creatures that ruled the no-go zones, and everything Warren was saying seemed to indicate that the entity’s intentions were benign.
It was bizarre.
“Do you guys think that she was right and that I’m feeding on you when we have sex?” Warren asked.
He seemed nervous about the answer, but he wasn’t sharing his feelings across their bond, so Marcus couldn’t get a sense of why he was nervous.
“Maybe,” Harland said.
Warren twisted his neck and looked up at him. “She called you juicy.”
Harland looked disturbed by the revelation. Being labeled juicy by a mysterious entity with a history of killing werewolves and other supernatural creatures was not ideal.
“We don’t understand omegas very well,” Marcus said. “It could be that what makes you an omega is an ability to feed on werewolf essence.”
The suggestion seemed to disturb Warren.
“If that’s the case, it’s a symbiotic relationship,” Harland interjected. He kissed Warren's cheek. Marcus wished he and Max could be there with them. “Omegas make alphas more powerful. Whatever the exchange, it isn’t one that leaves us at a disadvantage.”
“Not at all,” he agreed.
“I think she showed me how to feed more effectively,” Warren mumbled.
“Okay, tell us again the stuff you left out,” Harland commanded, stern but calm. He stroked Warren’s chest. “Even if you are feeding on us, there’s nothing wrong with that. We have plenty of energy. Besides, you’ve been letting me feed off your blood, so it’s not like I’m one to judge.”
Warren squirmed. “Okay, but it was kind of creepy, okay?”
Marcus closed his eyes. If they hadn’t gotten to the creepy stuff yet, he didn’t know how to mentally prepare himself. Opening his eyes and steeling himself, he saw Harland and Max do the same.
“She kind of, jokingly, implied that I could be satisfied with just Harland and let her have the werewolves.” Warren rushed to add, “But I told her no!”
“You told her no,” Marcus repeated, feeling out of his depth.
“She laughed and called me a greedy baby.”
“She laughed?” Max asked from beside him. “Like, in a mocking way, or a nice way?”
“A nice way, I think,” Warren said. “She was… I got the feeling that she just wanted to be on good terms from the start so that if we meet again we won’t be enemies.”
“When would you meet her again?” Max asked.
Warren hesitated before saying, “She invited me to visit when I was all grown up.”
Marcus closed his eyes again. He kept them closed as he said, “Warren. Can you please relay your entire conversation from start to finish? Please?”
“I did!” Warren said. “She just said that she didn’t want to fight and that we should be friends.”
“She thinks you’re a baby… something, that one day will be strong enough to be a threat to her?” Max reasoned.
Marcus’s first instinct was to reject the conclusion as being ridiculous, but when he looked at the situation objectively, that seemed to be the case.
“I’ve never heard of a pack where having an omega turned out badly for the pack,” Harland said. “I’ve heard of omegas meeting a bad end, but not the pack that they were a part of. There’s no history of omegas being dangerous.”
“Don’t feel bad, okay?” Max said, staring intently at Warren. “We’ll figure this out, and you’re still you.”
“But what if I like, lured you in with my omega powers and now you’re under my thrall and I’m eating you like some kind of creepy succubus?”
The words poured out of Warren, painfully sincere, and when he was done talking, he clamped his jaw shut and looked like he was about to cry.
This was what he was so worried about.
“You’re not,” Marcus said, smiling.
“How do you know?” Warren asked, his voice small.
“Because our wolves chose you,” Harland said, his tone just as reassuring as Marcus had made his. “That’s not something that can be manipulated.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Marcus answered for him. “Even if you had somehow managed to trick me, my pack would have felt it if there was something wrong with our bond. There might be more to it than we knew, but there’s nothing false about our status as mates.”
“You didn’t trick us,” Harland assured him. “We were meant to be together. All of us are stronger than we would have been apart, and happier. There’s nothing bad about you.”
The words seemed to calm Warren down. He took a deep breath, and Marcus could feel him reaching for their mating bond.
He hadn’t realized that Warren was shying away from the connection. He wasn’t used to feeling him, so his muted absence hadn’t struck him as odd.
“Good boy,” Harland said, his voice deep and rough. Marcus watched him stroke Warren’s chest, his large hand sliding up and down with firm motions. Warren’s breath hitched. “Everything is going to be okay.”
They stayed on the video call with Warren and Harland for another hour, but then Marcus’s phone died. They switched to Max’s phone, talking about nothing while they allowed the revelations of the day to settle.
Warren, now that his concern about being a luring succubus had been addressed, was calm and happy.
He was also horny.
It was no wonder. He’d been in chastity for days, and Marcus could feel how worked up he was. Every time Harland stroked or touched him, his arousal would spark and then be met with a wall of frustration as the cage prevented him from getting hard.
“You’re taking this off when we get to Alaska, right?” Warren said at one point, looking down at Harland squeezing him between his legs.
Harland kissed his cheek. “No.”
Warren’s eyes widened and he twisted around to look up at the vampire. “What do you mean, no?”
Max laughed, sounding delighted.
“We’re going back early,” Harland explained, patting Warren’s locked-up cock through his pants. “You can come on Christmas morning. It will be one of my presents to you.”
“And you think you get to decide that because…?” Marcus said, making Warren look at him with a hopeful expression.
“Because I have the key,” Harland said. He blinked. “Which is at the house. Hold on, let me text my assistant to make sure she packs it up and sends it with my luggage.”
“Wait, so you couldn’t take it off even if you wanted to?” Warren asked, indignant.
“I could break the lock in an emergency,” Harland said, sliding his hand into Warren’s pants and fondling his caged cock. “Don’t worry.”
Watching them, Marcus felt his own cock harden. After the adrenaline rush earlier, he had been in no mood to be horny, but now that his anxiety had calmed down, he was back to his usual level of arousal. He turned to Max.
“Want to get fucked?”
Max’s pupils dilated, his mouth parting as he nodded. “Absolutely.”
Marcus grinned and rose to his feet, palming his cock through his pants. “Bend over that table while I lock the door and set up the phone so that Warren and Harland can watch. Hold yourself open for me.”
Max rushed to obey. Marcus locked the door and grinned at his mates on the plane.
“Do you guys want a show?”
Warren and Harland both nodded attentively.
Marcus propped the phone up on the table next to the one where Max was bent over, angling his hips so that the camera caught the moment he lifted his hard cock out of his pants and slapped it down on Max’s ass.
This was going to be fun.