Chapter Forty-Three
Sera
The night air in the parking lot feels painfully clean. I drag it into my lungs and hold it there.
How the hell did Espie survive breathing that in for years?
The SWAT team loads Wallace into the back of the van. He's not fully conscious, probably from blood loss, and they don't treat him gently, which I appreciate.
I hope he has fun trying to wipe his ass with no fingers.
Two of his modified betas go in after him, cuffed at the wrists and ankles, and then the van doors close. The van pulls away and satisfaction burns in my chest.
Ezra had dealt with my hand while the SWAT team was still clearing the platform.
He'd unwrapped the field dressing Wallace's people had thrown on it, cleaned the wound, and followed it with a nerve block that had my whole hand going pleasantly numb from the wrist down.
It's wrapped, it's clean, and Ezra knows what he's doing.
“I'm amazed you're still on your feet,” Kev says.
“I'm very motivated to stay vertical,” I say.
He makes a sound that falls somewhere short of a laugh and slides his hand into my hair, his thumb moving in slow, soothing strokes.
Espie has both arms around my waist from one side.
Aubrey has his face in my neck from the other.
I'm holding them both and their scents are soaking through my jacket and into my skin, and the pull is there.
All five threads. Espie first, gardenia thick at the back of my throat.
Aubrey underneath that, cedar going warm now, chamomile sweetening.
And then behind those two, threaded through them both like they're the door the others walked through: oakwood, Earl Grey, fresh linen.
Levi holds Isla's sweatshirt in both hands, the fabric bunched between his fingers. His shoulders are carrying weight that wasn't there an hour ago. He's not looking at me. He's looking at the sweatshirt.
“She was on the train,” I say. “When they took me inside the platform, the train pulled out. She was in a cage in one of the cars. Four other omegas with her.”
His jaw works.
“They could have transferred them anywhere along that line,” I say. “We don't know how many stations they're using.”
“We know one.” He lifts his chin toward the platform entrance. “We know Ashcroft. We know the layout. We have Wallace in a van.” His voice is flat, operational. He's doing what I do, using the work to hold the rest of it at bay. “With the right persuasion, he'll give us the network.”
“I'll make sure he gives us everything,” Kev says.
Espie lifts her head from my shoulder. “Start with his dick,” she says pleasantly. “His fingers are all used up.”
Aubrey says, “Then take his balls if he still doesn't talk.”
Levi stares at them for a beat. The tight line of his mouth loosens by one degree.
Kev nuzzles Aubrey's temple. “Then that's what'll happen.”
I have no doubt that's exactly what will happen before Wallace meets his maker.
Espie reaches out and puts her hand in Levi's. “We'll find her,” she says.
Levi dips his chin, and when he raises his eyes again the flat devastation has pulled back enough that the operative is visible underneath it. He shifts his gaze to me.
“Get your omegas back to their nest,” he says. “That's an order. They need you.” He glances at the three male alphas behind me, then back. “All of you.”
He reaches out and claps me on my bruised shoulder. My breath punches out through my teeth. The nerve block doesn't cover the shoulder; that one lands full. Kev, Lex, and Ezra growl at the same pitch. Levi steps back with both hands raised.
“Gods,” he says. “Sorry. That's — I didn't think. Sorry.”
“I'm good, Levi. Go find your omega,” I say.
He nods at me, then leaves.
Aubrey makes a sound that pulls my whole body toward him. It's low and broken and wordless. I catch him as he sways.
His scent is warm and thick and getting sweeter by the second. I cup his face. His forehead drops to my throat. He's hot. Burning up.
“Alpha.” His voice is worn smooth at the edges. “Please.”
Oh, hell. He's going into heat.
My clit swells, my thighs press together, slick gathers before I've had a single coherent thought. I feel so empty. All I want is my omega inside me until neither of us can think straight.
Kev curses under his breath. He puts a hand on Aubrey's forehead. “Hey. Love, you're going into heat.”
Aubrey groans, an obscene wet spot gathering on the front of his pants. “Please. Need.”
“We'll get you there, omega.” Kev lifts Aubrey against his chest. Aubrey curls against Kev, jamming his nose against Kev's scent gland on his neck.
“Come on. We need to get him home,” Kev says.
Ezra lifts Espie and we jog out of the parking lot.
I follow Kev to the car parked in deep shadows three warehouses down.
My legs are carrying me and I'm not entirely sure how.
The nerve block ends at my wrist and everything above it is screaming and I don't care, I don't care at all, because their scents are thickening with every step and by the time Kev hits the locks the throbbing in my slit drives through my whole body. The males are barely hanging on.
I jump inside as Kev hands Aubrey to me. Espie follows and Ezra bookends Espie. Lex slams the door shut and rides shotgun as Kev jumps behind the wheel.
I catch Kev's gaze in the rearview mirror. His pupils are blown so wide there is almost no color left around them as the engine roars to life.
“Drive fast. Don't worry about the fines,” Lex says.
The tires skid as he pulls out.
Espie whines. She grabs the front of Aubrey's jacket and pulls him to her and they kiss hard, her hand sliding up into his hair, his hands going to her hips. Heat pulses through me at the sound she makes against his mouth. Ezra swears under his breath.
“This is not going to be a short drive,” Lex says from the front.
“Shut up and let Kev drive,” I say. My voice comes out steadier than I deserve credit for.
Aubrey pulls back from the kiss, chest heaving. He grabs the zipper on Espie's jacket with clumsy hands, and she's already shrugging out of it. The vest is next, the buckles on the sides, and they're both struggling with it.
“Here.” I get the left side buckle while Ezra gets the right, and the vest comes loose. Espie peels it off and drops it somewhere and then Aubrey whines again, that same broken sound, and grabs at his own jacket.
“How far out are we?” I ask.
“One hour with the way I’m going to drive,” Kev says from the front. His knuckles are white on the wheel.
“Fuck, why can't we time-warp,” I say.
I get Aubrey out of his jacket. The vest buckles next. He slumps back against the seat the moment it comes free, a short relieved breath, and then Espie is in his lap and he buries his face in her breasts and opens his mouth against the fabric of her shirt.
Espie tips her head back and slides her hands into his hair. He sucks at her through the fabric, his hands pulling at her shirt to get underneath it, and she arches into him and the gardenia coming off her doubles. I'm soaked through my underwear. Nothing I can do about it.
Ezra moves his hand to the front of his own trousers. He strokes himself through the fabric with a slow deliberate motion. He catches my eye and whines.
Espie gets her hands under Aubrey's shirt and drags it up. The skin of his stomach is pale and unmarked between the older scars. His ribs show through. He's better than he was but still too thin. But Espie sucks his collarbone and he grabs her hips and says her name against her hair.
“Espie. Need.” Aubrey whines, trying to shove his trousers down as well as hers.
“For God's sake, help them,” I say to Ezra.
We both work at disrobing the two very horny omegas in the small space. I work Espie's pants off and her scent blooms like I'm in a spring-time orchard. “Fuck.”
Espie throws her legs over Aubrey's bare hips and sinks onto Aubrey's cock. Both omegas groan and so do we as their sweet scent permeates my brain. She bounces up and down, her small breasts bouncing with her.
“Sera.” She grabs my wrist. “Touch me.”
I don't argue with that. My good hand goes to her hip, then her breast, and she exhales hard and rocks against Aubrey. I get my thumb over her nipple and she makes a sound that has no language in it.
Aubrey groans. His hands are on her hips, hauling her down against him.
“Touch me, Alpha,” Aubrey says to Ezra.
Ezra leans down and kisses him. Aubrey's hands stay on Espie's hips. His mouth opens under Ezra's, kissing back hard, and Ezra groans into it and palms the back of Aubrey's head.
Espie throws back her head and grinds her pelvis on Aubrey. The sound Aubrey makes tears out of him. His head drops back against the seat. Espie braces her hands on his shoulders.
“More,” Espie moans.
I push my hand between their undulating bodies and stroke her clit. I want to record the throaty groan she lets out and play it back a thousand times a day.
“Gods,” Kev says from the front. His voice has gone rough.
“Language,” Lex says, and it is not entirely serious.
My clit aches with every movement Espie makes and my thighs are soaked through. I swivel my hips, trying to ease my ache with the friction from the seam in my jeans as I double my attention to between Espie's thighs.
Espie reaches for me again. Her hand catches my jaw this time and she pulls me toward her without breaking her rhythm. I close the distance and kiss her, and she tastes of heat and want and her mouth is wet and she is moving on Aubrey's cock while she kisses me.
Aubrey drives up into her. She breaks the kiss and tips her head back and cries out. I put my mouth on her throat and suck.
“Good boy, taking care of our omega like that.” Ezra leans down and sucks Aubrey's flat nipple, dragging his tongue over the disc before nipping the peak with his teeth.
“Don't stop,” Aubrey grits out.
“I wouldn't think of it, Omega,” Ezra says.
Espie goes rigid as she comes. The sound she makes is high and sharp and her whole body clenches, and Aubrey drives up into her three more times and then shudders apart underneath her. Espie drops against his chest and he pulls her in.
Ten seconds of silence. Then Espie whines. She must be on the cusp of her heat too. Shit, two omegas going into heat will need all of us.
“Come to me,” I say.
She scrambles into my lap and straddles my hips. Her slick and Aubrey's release are on her thighs and now they're on my trousers and I don't care, because her hands are on my face and her mouth is on mine and she tastes of everything and I pull her in and stop thinking entirely.
“Sera,” she breathes. “Touch me. Please.”
I slide my hand between her thighs. She's slick and swollen and hot, and the moment my fingers find her clit the sound she makes lands in my sternum and stays there.
I angle my hand and enter her with my fingers while I grind down on her clit with my thumb.
She's so wet she coats my hand. I work her in slow circles and she grabs the front of my shirt and rides my hand.
Aubrey whines his need and Ezra tilts him sideways in the seat. His head rests on Espie's thigh as Ezra bends down and takes Aubrey's stiff cock in his mouth.
Lex turns around from the front seat. His brows rise. “Having fun back there?”
“I wouldn't want to be anywhere else,” I say.
“Good,” Kev grunts. I'm thrown into the door as he takes a corner too fast.
Espie clenches under my fingers as she rides my hand, her breathing coming apart in short pulls. I add a third finger and curl inside her. Her mouth drops open and she grabs my shoulder.
“Yes,” she breathes. “There. Sera, right—”
I drag my fingers across her g-spot and circle her clit with my thumb and she shakes apart, her whole body clenching, one long helpless groan against the side of my neck. I hold her through it.
Ezra keeps sucking Aubrey through Espie’s orgasm.
Aubrey punches upward and he grabs a fistful of Ezra's hair with one hand and grabs my jacket with the other.
He fucks up into Ezra's mouth with short hard thrusts and makes no attempt to moderate himself.
Ezra takes it. He makes a low sound of approval and sucks while he fondles Aubrey's balls.
Ezra glances up at me past Aubrey's hip. His mouth is full of Aubrey's cock and he looks entirely too comfortable down there.
“Don't even,” I say.
He goes back to what he's doing.
Kev turns into the driveway. Thank fuck because Espie is starting to whine and swivel her hips in need again.
Aubrey comes as Kev cuts the engine. He comes with a raw sound and he grips Ezra's hair, shuddering. Ezra swallows and sits up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
Espie turns her face into my throat. “Home,” she murmurs, her whole body already going heavy against mine.
Then Ezra leans across Aubrey's chest and gets his mouth on mine.
He tastes of himself and of Aubrey and I make a sound against his lips.
He kisses me deep and slow and his hand goes to Espie's hair where she's against my shoulder and she squirms and I press my thumb to her clit because I can and she comes again against my hand, her moan swallowed by Ezra's kiss.
Ezra looks at me the same way he did in the kitchen the morning he pinned me against the counter.
“This, my mate,” he says softly, “is only the beginning.”