Chapter 21
Twenty-One
Lance
T his was painful. I wasn’t just talking about the throbbing of my dick, which had been hard for the last two days. I mean, that was painful too, but it had nothing on the look on Otillie-James’s face when she’d reached for me, asking me into her nest. The disappointment on her face when I’d said no.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to. I did. God, more than anything in my short, miserable fucking life did I want that. However, I knew that if I was with her through her heat, if she invited me into her nest and into her body, I wouldn’t ever leave.
So instead of helping Otillie-James through her heat, I was taking care of the other half of her heart. Taking care of the animals here was a full-time job; no wonder she’d been struggling so hard when I first met her. I started at five in the morning and went until ten at night, though it was a little better now that the kittens were starting on solid food. Their feedings were less frequent throughout the day.
But they were only one small portion of her daily routine. Giving medication, feeding and watering, changing out bedding, giving the birds free-fly time and then getting the little fuckers back in their cages—it all took hours. And I was thankful for every single one of those tasks, especially the ones that took me outside and away from the sounds of her cries of ecstasy. Away from the scent of Omegas in heat.
I swore beneath my breath, and even Akio whined. He was picking up on my tension, and I worked hard to soothe my fractured feelings, at least for him, if not for myself.
I was currently lugging hay for the goats and herding them away from the azaleas once more. Yesterday, when the height of the heat had been washing the house in pheromones, I’d built a fence outside. It was only temporary, but it should keep them off the flower beds.
Scaramouche gave me the side-eye as she ate her hay, and if you’d ever had the side-eye from a goat, you’d know it was a little demonic. Something about those slitted pupils made you believe that they were one bad mood away from headbutting you in the balls.
I’d also prepped baskets of food and hydration, leaving them outside the bedroom. I hadn’t seen either of the Alphas yet, though maybe I should hook them up to an IV. Technically, I’d been trained to do that in the Marines.
I fed Gert the goose, and the now-besotted Spartacus, who followed Gert around like a lovesick rooster. You’d never even know he’d once been a fighter. The love of a good goose could do that to a cock, I guess. The other day, I’d even seen him trying to swim to the middle of the pond with her. I’d been preparing to dive into the murky little pond to rescue the dumb bastard, but luckily, he’d managed to swim his way out. Now he just waited for his lady love on the banks. Apparently, everyone had to learn a lesson or two the hard way.
There was a collection of cellphones on the dining room table, which had been ringing off the hook, but I didn’t feel right answering them. So I’d just been ignoring them, and when either Sonny or Truett emerged, I’d get them to deal with it.
I headed back inside and made some fruit salad. Maybe the Alphas could coax the Omegas to eat something in bite-size pieces.
As if I’d summoned Truett, he emerged from the upper floor. He looked like shit. He was almost haggard, his hair disheveled, and he was covered in bite marks and scratches. He was in a pair of boxer shorts and nothing else.
He staggered a little, and I moved around the counter. I didn’t want the big bastard to faceplant, because I wasn’t sure I could deadlift him onto the couch. Steadying him, I helped him to a bar stool. “You look like shit.”
Truett huffed a laugh. “They’re both finally sleeping, even if it’s only for a moment. If I die today, I’ll die happy. But dehydration isn’t the way I thought I’d go,” he said roughly. I walked to the fridge and got him one of the sports drinks I’d borrowed their car to go and buy. Smiling at me, he took it thankfully and downed the whole thing in one mouthful.
I grabbed the basket full of phones also. “These have been going nuts. I thought one of you should look into it.”
He picked up his phone and immediately winced. “Fuck.” He scrolled through all the missed calls. “ Fuck. It’s Buck and Citrine. Their parents.”
I winced too. I wouldn’t want to have that conversation. “You should call them before they send the cops around.” If they were my kids not answering for days, I’d already have my ass on a plane back to South Carolina.
Truett shuddered, but I could see his resolve. “I know. I will.” He looked at me appraisingly. “Why didn’t you want to join her in the nest?”
I froze. “I’m not right for her.” I didn’t deserve her, but I didn’t say that to him.
“You don’t want her?” There was no judgment in his tone. “You can be honest.”
“I want her more than I should. She just isn’t for someone like me.”
He stared at me with those eyes that were too intelligent. Like he could read me, my intentions, my very heart. “The fact you think that is the very reason you’d be perfect for her. I know you’ve been leaving the baskets outside the door. I know you’ve been caring for the creatures she loves. I know you look at her like she’s an angel sent down from heaven to save your very soul.”
He gave me a knowing smirk. “Despite what you’ve done in the past, whoever you were in a different life, the man in front of me now is very much worthy of the Omega who keeps asking for him. The Omega who saw something in him, before the rest of us. She might have absolutely no common sense, but she’s a good judge of character. So if you can’t trust yourself, you should try trusting her.” He slapped my shoulder. “No pressure, though. Don’t go in there unless you’re really sure, because I promise you, once you’ve bathed in her light, there’s no going back to the dark.”
Grabbing his phone, he grimaced. “Wish me luck. I have to go tell a man who could crush my head in his hands that his daughter’s an Omega, that I want to claim her into my Pack because I’ve loved her forever, and that me and his stepson are currently fucking her through her heat.”
Fuck no. Even the idea of that conversation gave me cold shivers.
Picking up the fruit salad, I walked up toward her bedroom. The door was slightly ajar, and I couldn’t help but look. The male Omega was spread across the bed, his head nestled in the crook of a sleeping Sonny’s armpit. Dicks were out everywhere. And curled up in a small ball of creamy skin, her head on Sonny’s hip, was Otillie-James.
She was beautiful, even though her hair was standing up at weird angles, and her cheeks were flushed bright red. If I had to guess, I would say she was going through another heat spike. I could smell it in the air, beneath the scent of sex and pheromones.
Her eyes blinked open, finding mine immediately. “Lance,” she breathed softly, slipping from Sonny’s arms and crawling toward me across the bed. God, she was what dreams were made of. I stood so still, I was like a deer in the headlights. “Lance, I hurt,” she moaned.
I mightn’t be Alpha, but I was helpless to ignore that plea. I straightened my spine and stepped into the room. “Do you want me to wake your Alpha, Angel?”
She shook her head, crawling into my arms. I shuddered, the rightness of her in my arms washing over me like a balm. I ran my hands up and down her naked back. This felt like taking advantage of her, and I couldn’t get that out of my head. I tried to keep my hands in respectful positions, but my brain was very much aware that her naked cunt was pressed against my abs, and her chest was pressed against mine. She was one hundred percent Omega right now, and I told my cock to calm down.
“Want you,” she murmured, and her lips began to roam over my cheeks and down my neck.
“I want you too, Angel, but not this time. I want you to be with me one hundred percent the first time we make love.” Hopefully, I wasn’t blowing my only chance to have her. She mightn’t even want me, after the hormones of the heat stopped riding her like a bad addiction.
She frowned, then curled in on herself as pain washed through her. Fuck. I couldn’t leave her in pain. “How about I take the edge off, and by then, Truett should be back. Would that be okay?”
She smiled at me, the expression so wide and joyful that I was stunned. “Yes,” she moaned, before kissing me.
Wow.
I’d heard men talk about kissing someone and feeling like all their nerves had come alive, but I’d always thought it was just soldier talk. Everything back home was better when you were stuck in a tent in the middle of the desert—gas station hot dogs, candy corn, and kissing girls all became so much better than reality.
But this… Maybe they hadn’t been talking out their ass at all. My whole world had shrunk down to this woman, this moment, this kiss. She held me close and kissed me, like that was all she needed from me, even though I could scent her desire and feel her slick dampening the bottom of my t-shirt.
When I pulled back for air, her face was dazed and wild, but she still winced as the heat made her cramp. I gently laid her down on the rug at the bottom of her bed, glad it was fluffy and soft. “I’m going to eat you out, and I think that should chase away some of the pain,” I promised.
Her hands threaded through my hair, tugging gently. “Yes,” she breathed.
Spreading her thighs, I stared dumbly at her dripping cunt. God. My dick throbbed, and there was no way I wasn’t going to come in my pants like a teenager. Thank god she’d never know.
I ran my tongue up her inner thighs, licking up the juices smeared across them. Her fingers tugged at my hair, hurrying me, and I chuckled low. Now was not the time to tease her, but one day, if I got the chance, I was going to edge her for hours until she was whimpering my name.
Stiffening my tongue, I ran it along her seam, from entrance to clit, and she moaned so loudly that there was no way she wasn’t going to wake the other two. She gripped my hair hard, grinding herself up against my face, riding it.
I went wild, sucking and licking and fucking her with my tongue, breathing when I could, but if I suffocated—or, given how much she came, possibly drowned—I had to hope one of the others knew CPR. If not, what a way to die.
She kept chanting my name over and over, and it was the best sound I’d ever heard. I murmured encouragement with my mouth on her clit, making her wriggle and writhe, and I wondered if I could just eat her for hours.
After the third orgasm, though, she was panting for my cock, and I froze. I couldn’t. Not like this. I wanted her to want me, not just who she thought I was in the heat craze. I pulled back and realized that we had indeed woken up the other two people in the room, as Sonny was now fucking the male Omega right into the mattress.
A hand landed on my shoulder, and I was so blissed out on the taste of Otillie-James, I didn’t even startle. Truett was there, giving me a knowing look as he knelt down beside me. “How about you kiss your Beta while I fuck you on my knot, sweet Omega?”
Otillie-James frowned, like she wanted to protest, but once she got a look at Truett’s cock, she was all grabby hands. Omegas in heat were needy but simple creatures, and I breathed a sigh of relief for that. Because if she’d insisted, I wasn’t sure I’d have the willpower to deny her again.
Truett pulled her to her feet, lifting her easily into my arms. “We are about to get real up close and personal right now, Lancelot,” he said, using Otillie-James’s nickname. “Better brace yourself.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck, kissing herself from my lips. I held myself steady as Truett lifted her thighs and dragged her down onto his dick. She moaned down my throat, like she was feeding me her pleasure. He fucked her hard, trusting me to hold them steady.
As she murmured incomprehensible things against my lips, I wrapped one arm around her ribs and dropped my other hand between her pussy and my abs, so she could grind her clit against my palm.
She went wild. It didn’t even matter that I felt the slide of Truett’s knot against my palm. In fact, I swear it made him go even harder, so apparently, he didn’t mind either. He had his lips pressed against her shoulder blade and a wild look in his eyes, and how they’d resisted bonding her yet was a real miracle.
The friction rubbing on my cock made me blow inside my jeans, and I’d have been embarrassed if this wasn’t the fucking hottest thing ever. Finally, she came two more times, and Truett knotted deep inside her, making her sigh with relief. I pressed her back into his chest, and he held her to his body tightly, walking them backwards. I made sure they didn’t fall, but her eyelids were already starting to flutter closed. Grabbing some of the electrolyte drink from the basket beside the door, I tempted some between her lips before she passed out completely.
Then I hightailed it out of that room, like the chicken shit I was.