Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Fletcher
A s if my heart wasn’t breaking enough. Hearing my beloved husband call out another man’s name in desperation, a man who could give him the things I never could, was soul-destroying. Gideon was my everything, and now he was searching for someone else who could fulfill him where I couldn’t.
But adding my own body’s traitorous demands on top of that?
“No!” I gusted, scrambling back and off the end of the bed so I could pace the room, gripping my stomach. “No, this isn’t what I want. This isn’t what I need. This isn’t what Gideon needs right now.”
The sensations in my gut that nearly had me doubling over weren’t pain, exactly. They were need and longing so fierce that they swallowed up everything else within me. And that included any strength I had to help Gideon the rest of the way through his heat. Unlike me, Gideon had normal, three-day heats, and he was just entering day two now.
“What can I do to help?” Artemis asked, letting go of Gideon’s hand and getting off the bed to face me. I had the feeling Gid had purposely let go of his hand and pushed him away to focus on me. Leave it to Gid to think of me when he was the one in dire straits.
Except I clearly was now, too.
“You need to help Gid,” I panted, wincing as I paced away from him.
It felt like my entire body wanted me to run to Artemis, drop to my knees, and suck his cock until he filled my insides with his powerful seed.
No, that wasn’t just a feeling, that was exactly what my biology demanded.
“Damn this stupid womb,” I hissed, trying to keep my distance from Artemis as I continued my attempt to walk it off.
It wasn’t just that, though. Something was happening to me that went beyond having a womb and a heat cycle. I wanted Artemis. An inner voice that I’d managed to ignore for most of my life was begging me to stop being stubborn and to give myself to him. Artemis was good and strong. The way he was helping me take care of Gideon was the most noble fucking thing I’d ever seen.
Trust him , the voice whispered. Give yourself to him. He’s your alpha. Can’t you smell it?
I breathed in deeply before I could argue against that voice. Instantly, my mind and heart filled with the sense of home. Hay and summer, peace and contentment. It was all there in his alpha scent.
You don’t have to shoulder this burden alone , the voice went on. You can rest with him, give up and let someone else take the reins. Be the omega you really are inside.
“No!” I groaned aloud. “I’m stronger than this. I need to take care of Gideon. I love him. I love him! Gideon is my life!”
“I know, and it’s okay,” Artemis said, holding his hands up like he was trying to soothe me. “No one is saying that you don’t love Gideon.”
“I love you, too, Fletcher,” Gideon said weakly from the bed.
He’d managed to deflate the knot on the Heat Lightning device and remove it himself, and now he sat with his back against a pile of pillows at the headboard. He was so beautiful and ethereal. Gideon was everything an omega should be. He was gentle and sweet. He wanted babies and a family.
I was a complete failure as an omega. I had always wanted a career, respect. I wanted to be the caretaker, the sire. I wasn’t some womb that needed an alpha to fill it.
But wouldn’t it be wonderful to create life? Don’t you want the miracle of feeling the changes in your body as an entirely new person forms inside it? Then you could care for them as well and watch them grow.
“Shit, no!” I hissed, turning away from the bed and the two men watching me go through this mental and physical agony.
I was shaking, and as a particularly strong pang of need gripped me, I had to stumble to the bureau to hold myself up. I’d never cared much about babies and children before. I’d certainly never wanted to have them myself. I didn’t have time for that.
Not babies , my inner omega whispered to me. His babies. Artemis’s babies. He’s the one .
“No, he isn’t,” I whispered back. “Gideon is.”
“Fletcher, you’re obviously in pain,” Artemis said, his voice so gentle it was like a lover’s caress down my back. “Let me help.”
I’d been deliberately ignoring the volume of slick I was producing, but I was suddenly aware of it as it spilled down my thighs all the way to my knees. My hole pulsed and fluttered, opening on its own but yearning for Artemis’s thick cock to spread it farther. I went so far as to shuffle my feet apart and brace my hands on the bureau as I felt Artemis coming closer to me.
As soon as I realized what my body was trying to make me do, I snapped straight and turned to face him, gripping the edge of the bureau behind me.
“I can’t do this,” I said, pleading breathlessly with Artemis.
Artemis, amazingly, kept perfectly calm. “Okay, I respect your worries.” He stopped a good distance away from me, which I was certain took effort, since his body was flushed and sweaty, and his cock stood aggressively out in front of him, beaded with precum. “Let’s talk about what we can do here.”
“You’ve gone into heat, Fletcher,” Gideon said from the bed. He’d gathered up the sheet and clutched it in front of him like a shield. His eyes were glassy with awe and worry. “You can’t fight heat. You have to just go through it or it’ll hurt you.”
I sucked in a deep lungful of air, but didn’t have any answer to that. I knew he was right.
“The way I see it, we have a couple of options,” Artemis said, swaying slightly, his body tense with his efforts to maintain control. “Gideon is still in heat, and now you are, too. I hope you don’t mind my asking this, but do you think that maybe you went into heat several hours ago but didn’t really notice until now?”
Fuck, he was right, I had. It was all so clear now. I wasn’t usually so aroused while helping Gideon through heat. Not by the alpha I’d found for seed. I’d been tasting, then outright drinking Artemis’s cum for the past few waves. That had to be why I’d dropped to my knees to suck him off without even realizing what I was doing earlier.
“I think I have,” I admitted in defeat. “My heats always start out weak. Sometimes I don’t even notice. Sometimes I can get through heat without any help.”
“Okay,” Artemis said, like we’d figured out one piece of the puzzle. “It looks like you’re feeling it stronger now.”
I grimaced and made a sound of need. I hadn’t felt a heat wave this strong in years.
“I need to control it,” I said. “This needs to be about Gideon, not me.”
“I’m fine, love,” Gideon said, softening a little, even though he still held the sheet to protect himself. “I can’t stand seeing you like this. You’re in heat. You have to have an alpha.”
“Which brings me to some of our other options,” Artemis picked up from there, as if the two of them were a single, smooth unit. “You already have a Heat Lightning dildo, so you could use that.”
I winced, not just because I thought the word “dildo” was too sordid, but because my body and soul found the idea utterly distasteful. That made me wonder, for a second, if Gideon also found the Heat Lightning system gross and distasteful even though I’d been using it on him.
I would have to worry about that some other time.
“Other options?” I asked, panting and sweating as the wave turned more demanding .
Artemis shrugged and spread his arms, momentarily glancing down at himself. “You have an alpha in rut standing right in front of you, willing and eager to serve.”
The way his voice went gravelly and the barely contained fire in his eyes was another hint that he was exercising incredible willpower to stand his ground instead of jumping me and taking me by force.
The idea of him taking me by force had my inner omega shivering with lust. My knees went weak, and I fought not to cry.
“It’s okay, Fletcher,” Gideon said, shuffling to the side of the bed like he was surrendering the space to me and Artemis. “You do what you need to do. I still love you with my entire heart and soul. It’s okay.”
That was the crack that broke the damn. I burst into a sob, holding my hands to my face to hide the shame of the need I couldn’t control.
Then I gulped for breath and pushed away from the bureau, flying into Artemis’s arms.
The reaction between us was instant. Artemis let go of the control he’d been showing with a growl and pulled me into his arms as soon as I reached him. He slammed his mouth over mine, holding my neck with one, large hand so that my chin was tilted up. I was instantly at his mercy. I could feel the strength of his body as it pressed against mine, and it made my inner omega sing.
“It’s okay,” Artemis rumbled, his voice and demeanor entirely changed to be the alpha I needed instead of the one Gideon needed. “I’ve got you.”
I opened my mouth to thank him, but it turned into a cry of need. I threw my arms over his shoulders and leaped onto him, wrapping my legs around his waist. It was humiliating, but I wriggled and thrust my hips, trying to find his cock so I could impale myself on it.
I don’t know if I actually managed it or if he reached down to hold it and push it into me, but after a few tries, he actually slotted home. I cried out wildly with the pleasure of being filled and moved frantically to get him as deep into me as possible. The fact that Artemis could remain upright, holding me while I bounced on him, was a testament to his incredible strength.
It wasn’t enough by far, though. I needed him deeper. I needed his cock punching at the entrance to my womb and forcing its way inside. I didn’t want it careful and tender, like Gideon needed it, I wanted it raw and rough.
“Please,” I gasped, digging my fingertips into the muscle of his shoulders. “Please fuck me. Hard. I need it. Don’t hold back. Put a baby in me.”
That last part would have shocked me if I hadn’t been so far gone.
With a primal growl, Artemis did exactly what I asked him to. He took a few steps forward and pushed me back so I was braced on the edge of the bureau. He then grasped my hips and started pounding into me so hard I was certain he was rearranging my cells, not just stretching my insides.
I wailed with pleasure at the feeling. It was so much better than any sex I’d ever had before. It wasn’t just scratching an itch, it was making me who I was supposed to be. It was violent and amazing. I was certain I would have bruises from both the bureau’s edge and Artemis’s grip, but I loved it.
I was certain we both could have come just like that and ended the whole thing in a minute. I did come, shooting thin, white streamers across my belly. But Artemis wanted more .
He pulled out, leaving us both panting and me weeping at the loss. For a moment, he drank in the sight of my heat-spread body, then he scooped me up and spun me around to take me to bed.
I only vaguely registered Gideon crouched at the head of the bed, watching us with wide, aroused eyes, as Artemis plunked me face down at the foot of the bed. I shifted into the omega mating pose so fast that I almost smothered myself with the coverlet in my haste to get my head down and my ass up.
I expected Artemis to continue fucking me, but instead, he dropped to his knees behind me, pulled my asscheeks apart, and pushed his face into my gushing hole. I wailed with pleasure and started coming again as he licked and slurped up my slick and thrust his tongue into me over and over to get more.
It was glorious in so many ways. I couldn’t do anything but submit to his feasting and whatever else he wanted from me. Pleasure like I’d never known it pulsed through me and my balls continued to squeeze, even after I’d gone dry. I cried out with pure bliss, gripping the bedcovers on either side of me like I could stop my soul from flying out of my body.
It was more pleasure than I’d ever felt, but it was only the appetizer. Artemis needed more. He pulled away with a growl and stood. I could only imagine what he looked like, his face slathered in my slick, his body hard and flexing, and his thick cock standing up with need. I wished I could see it.
I had half a second to wonder if the sight was terrifying Gideon before Artemis robbed me of what little mind I had left. He grabbed my hips possessively and yanked me back onto his cock. He was so forceful it hurt a little, but I loved it and I wanted more .
I got exactly what I wanted and then some as Artemis started thrusting in me. Everything else was child’s play compared to the way he mastered my body. Helpless? I was more than just helpless as he claimed me and bred me. I was nothing more than a vessel for him. I was an extension of his body and a servant to his whims.
And I loved it. I loved it so much that I screamed with pleasure as his cockhead slammed harder and harder against the tight entrance to my womb. I could feel the inner fight, feel the last resistance of that part of me that knew who I was. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want to be submissive. I didn’t want an alpha to master me.
Except that I did. So desperately. I wanted it more than I’d ever wanted anything, except Gideon. I needed it.
No sooner did I admit that to myself when the entrance to my womb softened just enough for Artemis to push inside. We both cried out ferally as my womb grabbed him and wouldn’t let him go and as he started to come. I felt his knot form, locking us together, but that was secondary to the vortex of pleasure that swallowed me.
It was beyond everything. My worries and responsibilities dissolved. Even my body felt like it was pulled inside out and vanished. My entire existence was pleasure that transcended description. It was hot and bright, like an explosion, but also miraculous, like a flower unfolding in spring.
In the midst of it all, I could feel Artemis. Not just feel him inside me, although it absolutely felt like his cock had expanded to the size of a log, owning my insides and sending pleasure radiating with every small thrust of our locked bodies. I felt like part of him and he a part of me as his cum filled my womb, distending my belly. There was so much of it, and I wanted more.
I wanted it because it was Artemis. It was a piece of him inside me, and I never wanted to be without it again. It was warm and comforting. It was my rest in a storm of responsibility and difficulty. Feeling him so absolutely went beyond the scent of hay and summer. I was home. He was home. He was within me.
I had no idea how long the breeding orgasm lasted. Forever and a day. Or maybe just a split second. The next I knew, I was lying across the foot of the bed with Artemis cradling me. My back was nestled into his chest and stomach. He was still knotted in me, so for a second, I focused on that.
His slight move caused me to have an aftershock orgasm. That felt so good that when he brushed a hand over me, asking me something I didn’t quite hear, I let myself have another one. Then another one. Then I started fucking myself on his knot so I could have more. I didn’t ever want it to stop.
“Easy now.” Artemis’s voice finally cut through the post-wave need I was still feeling. “Are you okay? Was that too much?”
I was too groggy to answer, but after a few seconds, I realized Artemis wasn’t talking to me.
“It was…powerful,” Gideon said from a few feet away, panting. “I didn’t know it could be like that.”
“I’m sorry if we were too primal for you,” Artemis apologized as I tried to open my heavy eyes. Gideon needed my reassurance. He needed me. “I think both Fletcher and I had been holding onto a lot of things, but we felt safe letting it go with each other. I just want you to understand that it was all consensual, no matter what it looked like.”
“No, no, I could tell,” Gideon said. There was a note of arousal in his otherwise timid voice. “I think you gave Fletcher exactly what he needed.”
“He did,” I said. At least, I think I said it out loud. It might just have been in my head.
“I don’t want you to worry,” Artemis went on.
“I’m not worried, strangely,” Gideon said. “I…it was amazing.”
“It certainly was,” Artemis said with a deep, possessive growl.
Except he hadn’t said it aloud. He’d only thought it. His inner alpha had thought it…and I had heard it...through our bond.