Chapter 26 Kaian #3
“How can I be mated if you can’t bite me?
” It comes out in a whisper, and Kaian couldn’t hide the longing that colors it if he’d tried.
“It doesn’t make sense.” He takes Quinn’s hand in his.
It puts his fingertips up against Kaian’s wrist, and his fluttering pulse tells Kaian the alpha isn’t as unaffected as he’d have Kaian believe.
“Sure it does.” Quinn tilts his chin up. “We feel it for you even without all that, bébé. We do. For Weres, it’s a biological imperative to bond that way with our fated mates. It’s why we’re in here, and they’re out there. But just because you’re Human doesn’t mean we won’t feel the same for you.”
“Then why do I have to be in here instead of out there?” Kaian wants to witness their bonding even if he can never have it for himself.
“The big man is out of his mind. Ruts aren’t usually like that, at least they aren’t for me.
But this is how Fate works. All his mates in one place after so long, an alpha like him would want to be sure none of us could get away.
He’d have you under him, teeth in your neck, without a second thought.
We don’t know if you would even be magical after that.
And they do the authorized turnings in the hospital for a reason, cher.
It hurts like fire, and you could die without medical support. ”
“Is he out there making Isaac, Soren, and Elias his right now? Are they doing the same? It does work that way, too, right? He bites them, and they bite him? Then they’re a pack forever.”
Quinn flinches. “For-fucking-ever. For better or worse, until death do we all part.” His jaw tightens, his cherry smoke scent going more burnt around the edges.
“Then why are you in here?”
Kaian doesn’t tell him that he can see Quinn loves Soren and vice versa, even if Quinn had said it was complicated. And if Fate has done the work to make them compatible—and maybe he’s too much of a romantic—but it seems like the perfect recipe for a happily ever after.
Except for Kaian, obviously. There’s no happily-ever-after for the magical Human with a bounty on his head and the biggest bad hot on his heels.
Pain like he’s never felt aches in his soul.
The thought that they’d go on to a happy future without him is agony.
Grief, worse than any he’d ever felt, brings tears to his eyes.
Quinn’s jaw set, eyes turned inward, and nails dug into his thighs. “To be with you.”
Kaian wipes a hand over his eyes, pushing the pain away until he’s alone again. Lots of time to feel it all then. Quinn’s words aren’t the whole truth. “That’s not all.”
“No, that’s not all. Look. Fate has had it in for me since I was a kid.
Luck everywhere I turn, and Fate is moving me around like a chess piece on a board I can’t see.
But I’m no one’s pawn. I won’t dance to anyone’s tune but my own, and certainly not for people who are only with me because Fate says so.
I’m attracted to all of you like fire, but my mind is my own. I choose. Me.”
The last is whispered, and the whole speech sounds like one he’s given a thousand times. To someone else or to himself, Kaian can’t tell. Either way, it doesn’t look like Quinn is happy about it or even convinced the words are true.
Kaian doesn’t point that out, either.
“So you’re in here and not out there getting what you want?”
Quinn narrows his eyes, no doubt because Kaian couldn’t keep the “you’re being dumb” tone out of his voice.
“I say this with love, bébé: fuck off.”
“Thought so.” Kaian fiddles with the buttons on the shirt. “So does that mean you won’t fuck me?”
“Kai,” Quinn groans.
“Well, you don’t have to love me to do it. Won’t be the first guy, anyway. And as long as you won’t try to bite me…we should be good. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy.”
“Easy for you to say. I don’t smell like the sweetest treat known to man.”
Kaian climbs right into Quinn’s lap. “I wouldn’t say that. You smell really good, too.” He runs his nose along Quinn’s throat, licks a path from the base of his throat to under his ear. “Taste good, too.”
“Are you sure?” Quinn’s pupils are blown, leaving only a faint trace of whiskey gold around the outer rim. “Weres can be a little rougher than you’re used to, and I want you like hell burning.”
“Anything. God, please. Need you inside me.” He moves Quinn’s hand from his hip and places it low on his belly. “It aches, Quinn. Please fill me up.”
The moment hangs between them, both holding their breath. In the blink of an eye, Kaian is flat on his back. The white shirt’s buttons ping off the dresser and wall, but Quinn doesn’t remove it.
“So needy, bébé. Leave the shirt on. The carpet is rough. I don’t want carpet burn on anything but your hands and knees.”
Kaian whimpers. “Please, now.”
“I need to kiss you all over first, and then I’m going to taste you. Open you with my tongue, then—”
If Kaian hadn’t been halfway to a hands-free orgasm, it might have been comical the way Quinn’s face fell. It’s like he’s a child who’s been told there’s no more ice cream after waiting all day.
“What?”
“Lube,” Quinn groans out. He drops his head onto Kaian’s chest. Not looking for anything except comfort as the word sinks in.
They don’t have any lube.
“Wait, what are they using out there? Can’t we borrow some?” He’s trying to push Quinn off so he can go and give Connall a piece of his mind for not stocking enough lube.
Quinn laughs, and Kaian feels a tongue lick over his nipple. “My guess is that they don’t need any.”
“Ouch.”
“No. They’re using slick.” Quinn groans again. “Fuck me. That’s a picture.”
“Slick? Isn’t that lube?”
“Well, yes, in the sense that it eases the way, but it’s not from a bottle. Isaac is an omega, remember?”
“You mean he’s more prepared than you are?”
“Hey! I arrived when you did, cher. And neither of us was thinking about lube.”
“I was. But the two of you—” Kaian stops as Quinn pulls him into a sitting position.
“What I mean,” Quinn says pointedly, “is that Isaac makes his own.”
“He makes lube? Good for him. Even better for us. I love a man who comes prepared. Let’s go get some.” Kaian tries to get up again, but Quinn growls.
“No. I mean, his body makes its own lube. It’s called slick, and it smells like heaven. Do you remember in the kitchen?”
Kaian doesn’t remember much from the kitchen except feeling good and the taste of Quinn’s come in his mouth.
“Key lime pie and sugar.”
Elias had smelled a little like tomato sauce when he’d kissed Kaian, but there’d been the flavor of a tangy, sweet dessert underneath. Oh my—he’d had Isaac’s slick in his mouth.
“I want some,” Kaian whimpers. “Isaac is sweet. He’ll share with me, and then I’ll be right back.”
“You can’t. I don’t know what Connall will do, and that’s bad for all of us.” Quinn shakes his head, and he does look a little sorry. “We can make do without. I can still make you feel good.”
It’s tempting. Lord, is it tempting. But Kaian needs his mate’s cock. Needs it like it’s the last sip of water in the desert. Like this is the only chance he’s got to take it.
He’s got The Plain out from behind his walls in the blink of an eye, and the bedroom door flies open, sending Quinn sprawling forward onto his hands and knees.
“Sorry! I need this! It’ll be okay!”
“Kai!”
Kaian leaps over his mate and sprints into the hallway. Quinn scoops him up before he can get three feet down the hall.
“You cannot go running anywhere right now, got it? You will set off his wolf. That’s how we got into the freaking mess.”
Kaian brings his legs up to wrap them around Quinn’s waist, rubbing his aching cock on Quinn’s very nice abs. He moves one of Quinn’s hands to under his butt, hoping he’ll get the message about where Kaian would like those long fingers, lube or no.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, ‘oh.’ I’m serious. It triggers the alpha urge to chase and fuck.”
It sounds perfect to Kaian. “You wanna fuck me, alpha?”
Quinn groans. “Yeah, but still no lube, and I won’t hurt you like that.” That begs the question of whether there are ways Quinn would hurt him, and if Kaian would like it?
They’re closer to the living room than they had been before, as if Quinn’s feet know where they should be even if his head doesn’t.
If Kaian waits it out, he might get what he wants anyway. Instead of teasing again, he sets himself to sucking a dark mark into the side of Quinn’s neck, right where his sexy scent is strongest.
Quinn sucks in a breath, and it’s enough to distract him from his task.
Soren is sitting with Elias pressed close.
The beta’s eyes are closed, and he’s drooling onto Soren’s shoulder.
Isaac is pressed up close behind him with their Alpha on his knees behind.
The couch is in the way, so Kaian can’t see how everyone is joined, but they all look debauched.
Red faces, and raw mouths, sweaty hair, and glistening skin. They’re beautiful.
Before he can think about the words of caution Quinn and Elias had imparted, he is wiggling to be free.
“Be still—” Quinn whispers, confusion about how they got here instead of in the bedroom clear on his face. “Dammit.”
He’s got them half-turned back when something changes in the room. Everything stills.
“Yes,” Soren whispers. “Please.”
Connall smiles, small and surprisingly sweet for a guy in a hormone-induced haze. “I promise to take better care of you. To love you better—”
Soren chokes out a wet chuckle. “Just do it. Need to come.”
Isaac guides Elias away, and it looks like he’s giving them room, as Soren tilts his head.
Ohhhh.