Chapter 12
“Who gets Shatter?” Umbra asked as we settled into the booths in class. People were settling into seats on the benches below, bringing with them the usual scent of caffeine for the first class of the day.
“Gets me?” I asked, glancing up from where I was lining up my notebook and pens.
“I want cuddles, Little Reaper. You’ve got me addicted.”
“It’s class.”
“How about a coin toss?” Umbra asked, ignoring me completely and glancing at Ransom.
Wait—coin toss? That got my attention.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dusk smirk—though it was all his fault that Umbra and Ransom were both so wound up they couldn’t focus on classes. They really needed to. They were falling so far behind.
“Sure,” Ransom replied, straightening.
But I couldn’t deny I was curious. I’d been thinking long and hard about Umbra’s tricks—and how Dusk had warned me away from playing his games when I’d first met them. I’d picked tails and lost, Ransom had picked tails and lost—and Umbra was always so sure about it. I think I knew what was going on.
“Heads or tails?” Umbra asked.
“Choose heads,” I hissed at Ransom. “You’ll win.”
Umbra raised an eyebrow, a smirk on his face that gutted my confidence.
“Heads,” Ransom said, glancing from me to Umbra.
Umbra rummaged in his pocket and took out what I knew had to be a trick coin. I couldn’t contain the smile on my face as he flipped it. He caught it, hand over palm, and peered at me.
“You sure?” Ransom asked me.
“Yes.” I folded my arms, eyes narrowed, suddenly unsure as I caught the twinkle of delight in Umbra’s sandstorm eyes.
My grin vanished as he lifted his hand and I saw the coin was tails up.
“What?”I asked.
“Fuck.” Ransom wound his arms around my waist. “But I want her.”
Umbra grinned, crossing his arms and looking to me.
“But I thought…” I pouted.
Well, fuck.
I kissed Ransom on the cheek and unwound his arms. “Later,” I promised him. “All the cuddles.”
“It might be prudent,” Dusk murmured, not looking up from the textbook chapter he was examining. “To make him take the coin out of his pocket before you pick a side.”
I paused, staring between them before it clicked.
“You have two?” I demanded, as Umbra happily tugged me onto his lap.
Of course he had two.
“Okay. It’s a mega important class today,” I said. Kind of. Not like… solve-my-pack’s-problems important (I’d scoured the textbooks repeatedly, so I was just hoping for new angles from the professors at this point). But there was a guest speaker I really wanted to listen to. “You’re not allowed to distract me.”
“But that’s the point,” Umbra chuckled. “You’re too smart. If I don’t distract you, no one else stands a chance.”
“It’s school, not a competition.”
“Everything’s a competition,” he said.
At first, it wasn’t too bad. Umbra’s muted wolfsbane and blood scent was always a little distracting, but once Professor Audrey began talking about her study on the recent discoveries on the difference between male and female alpha auras, I was really settled in. Actually, it was quite nice having the warmth of Umbra’s arms around me.
I got a lot of stares nowadays and I was getting better at ignoring them. The Lincoln pack were in this class too, but the gentle brush of Umbra’s thumb at my waist was grounding. It helped me forget the others in the room and focus on the lecture.
That was until he leaned forward and whispered a command in my ear.
My cheeks blazed with heat.
“I can’t do that,” I whined. But my body was already betraying me as I shifted on his lap, readjusting my legs on either side of him. I jumped as I felt his hand against the small of my back. “Lean forward, Nightshade.”
Oh… bother.
“You can’t make it obvious,” I hissed.
He chuckled. “It won’t be if you don’t keep saying things like that.”
I shivered as I felt his touch beneath my skirt, tugging my panties out of the way. Then he adjusted himself.
“You can’t actually—” I cut off with a barely contained whine as I felt his finger dip into me.
Dusk and Ransom’s eyes were fixed on me, and that was enough to make me shut my mouth of protests.
He shifted beneath me, and I knew what was coming before I felt his tip nudge my entrance.
“Come on, Little Nightshade,” Umbra growled. “I want you down to my knot.” I shut my eyes, burying my face in the textbook as the command took hold and I sank down over his cock, a little squeak of shock escaping me as he pressed up and into me, filling me completely.
Heat seeped into my core as he dragged me down further. “Wait, Umbra?—”
Too late.
Ransom’s eyebrows shot up. “Did he just…?”
“Fuck, Nightshade,” Umbra growled, a low purr of satisfaction rumbling through him and making me giddy. His hands rested on my hips as he drew me back and I bit back a whine of pleasure as he rocked into me.
He’d knotted me.
Infucking class.
“You’re going to learn how to take my knot while you study,” he breathed in my ear.
“Okay, but just… Why in class?”
“You’re mine, Nightshade.” He nipped my ear, sounding so fucking smug. “My wife. My omega. If I want you to keep me warm in class, you will.”
Focusing now, with his knot and low purr to distract me, was impossible. The combination of both was absolutely the opposite of soothing and my blood was heating rapidly, the pen in my hand shaky as I tried, and failed, to take notes.
I just about survived, shivering and fighting the rising heat, still managing to jot down the most important things—some of this was such new information the textbooks didn’t even have it, and Umbra was not going to ruin that for me.
That was, until I caught the faintest trace of coconut and plum, and I looked up to see Flynn Lincoln passing us. I froze, shrinking back against Umbra. I felt his low growl rumble in his chest, and his hand closed around my throat in an instant, dragging me back against him. Wolfsbane and blood soothed my flash of terror as, beneath the table, his finger found my clit and my breath caught as Umbra’s knot pressed up further into me.
The look on my face made Flynn pause, as if he knew exactly what was happening.
“You will never belong to anyone else,” Umbra breathed in my ear.
I had to drop my head, fingers clenched on the desk. My hair was up in a fucking bun thanks to Dusk, so there were only a few wild strands that hid my expression as I had a literal orgasm in class right in front of Flynn.
“Should we be taunting them like that?” Ransom asked as I caught my breath.
“I don’t give a shit,” Umbra said, humming happily as he pulled me closer, entwined with me in the bond, tangling lust with safety. “They’re not going to have you, Nightshade. Never.”