Chapter 38 Jae
JAE
“Is this what you wanted when you begged your alphas for more?”
I pushed the blunt tip of my lubed cock against her sensitive opening. Summer whined, arching her back and fisting the sheets. Even though she was constantly slick from her heat, I couldn’t risk hurting her.
“That’s it,” Lucien encouraged her, his hands bracing her jaw. His thumb found its way into her mouth. She sucked on it, soothing herself, and I felt her relax, my cock sliding deeper. “You’re such a good fucking girl, taking us both,” he praised her.
It was a tight fit with her pussy already impaled on Lucien’s cock. Summer was draped over him. Thighs spread, the curve of her spine dipped and her holes full of us. Panting and whimpering Alpha, please and desperate for us to move.
The rut teased at the edge of my consciousness. Whispers to take and fuck and claim the omega under me. I’d been slipping in and out of it the entire heat, my alpha rising in response to her need.
We held her in place between us, thrusting and filling her in tandem. Every time she clenched around my cock from the pleasure rippling through her, the scent of her arousal drove me a little more mad. A little more out of control. Dark strands of hair cascaded and exposed her shoulder.
I imagined my teeth in her flesh.
Summer whined as I carried her bridal-style out of her nest.
“Don’t be mad,” I said soothingly. “You’re burning up, and Mercer mentioned an article about lukewarm baths before he passed out.” I kissed the tip of her nose. “I think you actually fucked the life out of him and Lucien in that last round, angel.”
Summer only got more insatiable as her heat progressed.
In those first twenty-four hours (or was it forty-eight?) she needed one of us inside her at all times.
As soon as my knot would deflate, I had to make sure Lucien or Mercer was ready to fuck her before she started whimpering.
It was the only way she would get any sleep at all.
Even though we didn’t know what was normal, we were worried.
But every time Summer had a brief lucid period, she wanted to wake anyone who was resting. Even though she wasn’t really interested in eating or drinking, she doted on us , her fingers playing in our hair as she dotted bird-like kisses all over.
It took us a while to realize she was fucking us so desperately so she could get these reprieves from her heat. These were the moments she wanted to dwell in, and she couldn’t get that when her head was so clouded by unrelenting sexual need.
So we made the in-between flashes count. Found ways to make them last a little longer and cherished her the way she deserved.
Summer quieted when she realized I wasn’t going to put her down and she was safe in my arms. I gave her more kisses, my steps meandering as I headed to the bathroom. The light had been dimmed, and calm, ambient strings played from my phone.
She tensed as I lowered her into the filled bath.
“Don’t worry, I’m going to join you,” I reassured her.
I climbed in behind her, water sloshing over the rim as I pulled her into my embrace.
More kisses, more scent-marking until her spine relaxed a fraction.
Her back was burning against my chest and she wiggled, unable to sit still.
I grasped her inner thighs, guiding her legs open. Summer’s head fell back onto my shoulder as I angled my cock just right and filled her.
“How’s that?”
“Good.” Tired but relieved.
I picked up the tiny bottle of shampoo. “Can I wash your hair?” I interlaced our fingers, lifted her hand out of the water, and kissed it.
Summer hummed in agreement. I lathered up my hands and massaged the foam into her scalp.
“Feels nice,” she said drowsily.
Extra massaging it was, then. “And the water?”
“Just right. I don’t feel so hot anymore.”
If you had a bond with her, you would already know how she felt.
The sheer force of want that struck me was so disorienting I didn’t know how to process it.
“Jae?”
My fingers had frozen, still sudsy in her hair. “I’m here, angel.” Focus on taking care of Summer, not…the other thing.
I rinsed out the shampoo and repeated the process with conditioner.
Her forehead was cooler to the touch when I was done, but the flush hadn’t left her cheeks.
It probably wouldn’t until her heat was over.
But she was a little more comfortable, a little more clear-headed, and that’s all that mattered.
Summer was quite put out when I got us out of the bath without knotting her. I sank to my knees, ate her sweet pussy until she was shaking and coming all over my face before carrying her to the main room, where I could feed her.
Summer slept cute. There really was no other way to describe it.
Sprawled across all three of us, limbs in any nook and cranny of our entangled bodies she could find.
Her hair was fanned across Lucien’s chest, I was cradled against her back (and butt), and Mercer was hugging her front, his face conveniently in her tits.
At least she didn’t need to be permanently knotted anymore, so being used as a human pillow was a relief for my dick.
“Are you guys awake?” I asked tentatively.
Lucien’s eyes were shut. “No,” he replied.
“Any reason you’re interrupting the first stretch of sleep we’re all getting?” Mercer grumbled.
How could he be grumpy? Look at where his face was. I ignored him and continued. “I dunno. Just thinking. This is kinda nice, huh?” I lingered along the curve of her waist. “Seeing how safe she feels with us.”
“Yeah, it is. I like the caretaking more than I thought,” Mercer said quietly.
“Good job getting her to eat earlier,” Lucien noted. “We’ll have to thank Lina when we get back to Starlight Grove.”
The food deliveries had been a godsend. Room service was fine for drinks, but it had nothing like this.
Rich broths for Summer loaded with delicately sliced meat and vegetables.
Light enough that she wouldn’t feel sick, but nutrient-dense enough so she wasn’t running on empty.
We added noodles to ours to make it more substantial.
Then there was the spread of snack-like finger foods like steamed buns and rice paper rolls.
Perfect for grabbing quickly and stuffing our faces any free second we had.
Falling into a routine had been easy. We worked well together. Looked after her and each other, making sure we all got to rest and had enough to eat and drink.
We felt like a pack.
The thought terrified me. I hadn’t let myself feel this way in so long. The more deeply I cared for them, the harder it would be when I lost them.
When.
Did it have to be so final? So inevitable? Anticipating the worst had become my default.
But it was such a lonely way to live.
“I never thought experiencing a heat as a pack would be like this,” I said quietly.
Mercer sucked in a sharp breath. I knew the idea of being a pack had been on his mind after I fumbled my answer to him earlier.
“Being in a pack wasn’t something I ever thought about. Or wanted,” Lucien admitted. “Even when the opportunity came up, I turned it down immediately.”
“In college?” I guessed.
“Yeah.” Lucien’s fingers played absentmindedly in Summer’s hair. “What about you? Ever think about packing up?”
I shook my head. “I made it pretty clear to everyone I knew that I wasn’t…in it for the long haul.”
Admitting that tasted like ash. That year I fucked off to figure out life was not a version of myself that I liked. Lost, self-destructive, and lucky to have stumbled upon the silver lining of my career.
“How do you two feel about it now?” Mercer asked cautiously.
A weighted silence hung in the hushed shadow of the hotel room.
I held onto Summer tighter.
“I can’t imagine being able to trust anyone else but you two when it comes to her,” I said finally.
Lucien huffed. “I…nearly tore off a colleague’s head at the gala for speaking to her. But it’s okay. I controlled myself and I’m going to fire him instead.”
A disbelieving laugh bubbled up. “What the fuck?”
“I think he’s saying that Summer makes him homicidal,” Mercer deduced.
“I’m saying that I agree with Jae. Only you two,” Lucien said, completely remorseless.
Summer made a faint puttering noise. We all watched, mesmerized, as she resettled herself in her sleep.
Totally normal behavior.
But Lucien’s next question brought the foundations crashing down around us.
“Do you think this is how it was for them, at the start?”
We didn’t have to ask who them was. It was the lead weight on our hearts, the event that divided our lives into before and after.
“Do you think Mom and our dads hung on for so long because they were trying to chase this feeling?”
The three of us sat in this cold realization. We saw our parents in a different light. We saw us in a different light. It was a stark reminder of the pain I had been protecting myself from all these years.
This nest existed in a different dimension. When we left, who we were mattered. What we valued, what kind of life we wanted to build. We had to be held together by more than scents and pheromones.
Maybe all the future could ever be was history repeated.