Chapter 30
Thirty
Edison
“ I ’m sorry,” she hiccuped at me once again as I washed her face gently with a washcloth.
Shaking my head, I replaced the cloth with my lips, kissing her puffy eyes. “Don’t be sorry for caring, Tillie. It’s one of the things I love about you.” I sighed heavily. “You worried me today, though. I hated not knowing if you were okay.”
I really did. My Alpha still felt riled. I didn’t like feeling helpless, like if something went wrong, I’d never know. Honestly, I briefly considered chaining her to my wrist forever. I had to go back to work next week, and even the idea was making me break out in a cold sweat. I wondered if I could become a good-for-nothing trust-fund baby, just so I could stay at home with Tillie for the rest of my days.
Oblivious to my inner thoughts, Tillie gripped my hands. “That’s easy to fix, Sonny. Claim me.”
I blinked at her dumbly for a long moment, my brain trying to catch up to what I’d just heard. “Tillie…” God, what did I say to that? I wanted to claim her more than anything. But she was distraught right now, and that would make me the worst kind of Alpha. “You’re not?—”
Covering my mouth with her hand, she shook her head. “No, Sonny. I mean it. Why are we drawing it out? I have no doubt in my mind that you guys are it for me. I feel it in my soul. And today, I wanted to reach out to our bond, to find comfort in you guys, and I couldn’t. We’re waiting, but for what?” She reached out and pulled me closer to her body. “Claim me.”
“But what about the ceremony? A big wedding? You deserve perfection, OJ.”
She gripped the sides of my face. “We’re already perfect, Edison. You and me, Truett, Strat and Lance. We are perfect. Bite me. Claim me.”
I groaned, burying my face in her neck, right over her scent gland, and breathed in her pretty floral scent. It was addictive, and I wanted to roll around in it all day. My lips dropped further down to her shoulder. This was where I’d claim her eventually.
Shuddering against me, she held my head to her throat, encouraging me. Jesus. I was only a man; I didn’t have a will of steel. Still, I summoned some kind of sanity and pulled back.
“I’m not going to claim you in a bathroom right now, Tillie.” She whined, and I stroked her face. “But if you want to be claimed, I want nothing more than to do it. I want to claim you, claim this Pack as mine. We have to do it right. Together.”
I picked her up and kissed her hard, before carrying her back into the living room, where everyone sat around with solemn expressions. I assumed Lance had debriefed Strat on what they’d seen. Even the thought of those pictures made my stomach turn. My poor, soft-hearted Otillie-James would have hated it.
They looked at me, still holding her. “It’s time.”
Truett’s gaze sharpened as he took in the way Tillie was nuzzling my cheek, her body wrapped around mine like a koala. “By time, you mean…?” Obviously, he wanted me to spell it out, but I didn’t blame him, because I’d want to be sure before I got my hopes up too.
“Otillie-James wishes to be claimed. So it’s time. If you’re in this Pack, tonight, we make us one. You aren’t obligated to bite into the Pack yet”—I looked at Strat, giving him a reassuring smile—“but it’s an integral moment in our story, and I’d— we’d —like you to be there to witness it.”
Strat nodded, and I looked over at Lance. I knew Truett was already in; his teeth had been waiting to sink into Tillie for years. However, for Lance, this must’ve all been pretty quick. He’d only had a month to come to terms with his feelings for Otillie, and then her heat and the Pack stuff. This was a lot.
My eyes met his, which held more emotions than I’d ever seen on his face. The overwhelming one, though, was sheer determination, and maybe a little love. He nodded too.
I grinned. Today, two became three, or even five. “Do you hear that, baby? Everyone’s going to be there, watching you become ours.” I looked over my shoulder at Lance. “Is it done?”
Our surprise for our Omegas. I’d had time off, and Lance was a guy who had fidgety demons that needed to be blocked out by hard work, so when he’d approached me for help with his project, I’d been totally on board. He’d started before we’d even officially moved out here, when there were just long days without anyone else to talk to. We’d done it together while everyone had been out of the house, so I was hoping it was a surprise, anyway.
Up the stairs we went, until we hit the door at the end of the hall. Behind it were more stairs that led to what had once been an attic storage space, though unlike most old houses, it was blissfully free of junk. Lance’s former CO hadn’t been the type to keep sentimental things, obviously. So the transformation from bare bones room to dual nests had been easy enough.
Each side of the room had a little alcove, a small nook that could fit an Omega and a couple of Alphas, which could be closed off from the rest of the nest, as well as the rest of the house. In the middle of the floor was a nest bed. The soft furnishings had been really my only contribution to the room; the rest had been Lance. But the bed was made for Omega nests, with a huge mattress that was almost pillowy, and sharply raised edges. It looked almost like a pond made of pillows and blankets, and I knew those ramped sides would be perfect for bending my Omega over.
Groaning, I willed my dick to behave. There was plenty of time to be inside her.
Tillie’s eyes were wide as she walked around the nest. “Is this for me?” she asked me, and I shook my head.
“Ask Lance. He did all this.”
She turned to the Beta, whose face was flushed in a way that was kind of adorable on the large, scarred, former Marine. “You made this for me?”
He nodded. “For you and Strat. There’s a place for each of you, in case you need some alone time. You’ll have to make it yours, of course, but it’s a start.”
She ran and launched herself at him, kissing him furiously. He kissed her back, his hands cupping her ass to hold her tight against him. Watching them together made my Alpha happy. He was still anxious to claim her, but he could wait, if it meant the two of them could heal each other a little more.
Finally, Strat walked over to run a hand over Lance’s shoulder, and the Beta pulled his mouth away from Tillie. I didn’t get the vibe from Lance that he was anything but one hundred percent in this for her, but he respected Strat—that much was obvious.
“Thank you, Lance.”
Lance stared at the Omega with a warm expression. The two men were around the same height, though Lance was twice as wide across the shoulders. “I mightn’t want to have sex with you, but you’re my Omega too, Strat. You deserve the best as well.”
If I’d had any doubt that Lance belonged in our Pack, it evaporated in that moment. Strat leaned his face against Lance’s shoulder, scent marking him a little, a huge smile on his face.
The combined scent of Strat and Otillie was enough to make my teeth hurt with the need to claim them. Or fuck them. Or both. I didn’t think Strat was ready for that yet; he still doubted us a little. He just needed time, and we’d give him that.
Lance walked her backwards to the bed, stepping into the nest and lowering her gently onto the heaped blankets and pillows. Next time she went through her heat, she could arrange this how she liked, nesting heavily. I couldn’t wait.
I also couldn’t wait to watch her nest when she was big and round with our babies. When her and Strat went into combined heats. I couldn’t wait to spend my entire life with her.
Our Beta was still kissing her, and Truett went over to Strat, sitting with him on the side of the nest. I climbed onto the pillows with my girl, as Lance continued to kiss her. I dragged her into a sitting position on my lap, facing him. I didn’t want to interrupt, but if I didn’t get inside her soon, my knot would explode.
Luckily, despite being on my lap, Tillie wasn’t done yet with Lance. To my knowledge, they’d never made it past second base, and I didn’t think today would be the day that changed, but watching them frantically kiss each other was hot as hell.
I stripped her out of her clothes, and she lifted her ass to help me. When she was finally naked, I dragged my sweats down my thighs, my cock springing free and rubbing against her dripping pussy. I settled her back on my lap, and we both groaned as I slipped the tip of myself inside her.
“Kiss your Beta, sweetheart. Fuck his mouth while I fuck this tight little hole. Show him how much you love him, while I claim you with my teeth.”
There wasn’t any more time for talking after that, because as I buried myself inside her, pleasure stole the air from my lungs. I moved her up and down my length, and Lance chased her lips with his. His hands came up to grab her tits, rubbing her nipples, making her grind down harder on me.
In the back of my mind, there was the thrum that was telling me that this was it—I was going to claim my Omega. It was making my knot inflate already. I was going to blow like an amateur, because the idea of having Otillie-James with me for life was making me horny as hell.
Dragging my mouth from the skin of her shoulder, I looked over at Lance. “Play with her clit, Beta,” I growled, almost all Alpha now. “Make her come as I make her ours.”
Bless his fucking order-following heart, because he dipped his fingers down, stroking her clit, and she began fluttering around me almost immediately. I shoved her down on my knot, stretching her wide, and her fib flexed around it, locking me to her.
I sank my teeth into the back of her shoulder, marking her as mine, claiming her. She turned her head to my bicep and bit me right back, right there over the muscle, on an arm that will hold no other woman ever again.
Contentment made me purr as the bond settled into place. She was mine now, and no one could ever take her from me. Love pulsed down the bond between us, followed by impatience down my bond with Truett. He wanted his turn, but I wasn’t ready to give her up yet.