Chapter 8
I wake in the night, naked, sore, and happy.
The sun’s been gone for many hours now. I know because I watched it go down. My alphas shared me many times before that happened, and they continued sharing me for a long time after.
At some point in the middle of it all, I stole the sleeping furs off the beds and assembled them into a big nest in the middle of the floor. The alphas just watched me in amusement. They knew better than to interfere with an omega in nesting mode.
Once I had arranged everything to my liking, they came and joined me, and gave me what I needed.
Them.
Yesterday, I awoke a virgin. It seems like a distant memory now. Another life. My alphas have shared me and knotted me more times than I can count. And they spilled enough seed inside me to impregnate an entire herd of omegas. Perhaps that should scare me, but it doesn’t.
My daddies are going to turn me into a mommy.
I like the sound of that.
I settle back into the warm comfort of our nest and close my eyes, listening to the quiet sounds of the night. Outside, a gentle breeze stirs the treetops. The whispering of the leaves mingles with the soft noises of the alphas sleeping around me.
Bjor is the loudest of the bunch. He sounds like a hibernating bear, and the effect is only amplified by the fact that I’m using his belly as a pillow. My head rises and falls with each slow cycle of his breath.
Then there’s Renn. He’s quieter, but he’s snuggled in so closely against me that I can feel his warm exhalations ghosting across my naked skin.
And Knar…
Wait.
Where is Knar? I should be able to hear him, but I can’t. Just Bjor, and Renn, and the wind outside.
I sit up and scan the room. Even though it’s night, there is plenty of light to see by.
Moonbeams spill in through the windows of the tower, painting everything in shades of silver.
I can see the bunks, stripped of their furs.
The table where we share our meals. The stool where the pack master spanked me.
But no Knar.
I call his name softly but get no reply.
I try again, a little louder: “Knar?” Still nothing.
Taking care not to wake Bjor and Renn, I carefully crawl out of the nest and stand up. Then I tiptoe over to the door. I’m halfway there when I realize Knar isn’t the only thing that’s missing.
What happened to that bundle of spears that was standing in the corner?
It was there when I fell asleep a few hours ago.
Now it’s gone.
Weird.
I open the door and step outside. There’s a narrow wooden walkway running all the way around the upper part of the tower. I lean on the railing and close my eyes, straining my senses for any sign of my missing alpha. A scent. A sound.
In the end, it’s the mark on my neck that finds him.
When Knar bit my neck earlier, he was leaving his mark on me. It is the first step in the binding process that joins an omega to her mates. In the days to come, my alphas will take me to the Central Ruins for the ceremony. Then Bjor and Renn will put their marks on me as well.
They’re going to make an honest omega out of me.
The mark that Knar gave me is a mark of flesh, but the bond runs so much deeper. Our souls are joined now, united by the power of the Source. Even when we are apart, we will always be able to find each other with our mate-sense.
Like now, for example.
Moving quietly, I make my way around to the other side of the tower. Even in the relative darkness, it only takes me a moment to find him, standing at the edge of the woods. My pack leader. My mate.
He is not alone. Someone else is down there with him. Another alpha. I don’t recognize his scent, but the voice sounds oddly familiar.
“…took us all evening to wash that foul-smelling shit from our bodies. Don’t even want to know where you found the recipe, Knar. If I’d known it was going to smell that bad, I would have charged you double.”
No. No way. It can’t be…
“Too late for that,” Knar says, holding up the bundle he’s carrying. “Twelve spears, just as we agreed.”
“Fine.”
The alpha’s voice is not as gravelly as it was earlier today, when he was pretending to be a Farlander. But it’s him all right, no doubt about it.
Knar starts to hand over the spears, then pauses.
“You know,” he says. “I ought to break your fucking jaw for cutting her top open like that.”
The other alpha lifts his hands in a gesture of mock surrender.
“Easy, Knar. No need for that. You told me not to lay a hand on her, and I didn’t. Besides, she already did a number on my poor old balls. I’ll be lucky to sire any more pups after a kick like that.”
Knar just grunts. He shoves the bundle of spears into the other alpha’s hands.
“Here’s your payment.”
“Thank you, brother. Your spears are prized throughout the Zone. These will serve us very well indeed.”
He slings the bundle over his shoulder.
“And what about you, Knar? Did you get what you wanted…?”
A pair of powerful arms enfold me from behind. Renn, of course. He’s the only one who could sneak up on me like that, quiet as a thief. His hard muscles feel warm and smooth against my bare back. His lips brush my ear.
“You know,” he whispers, “alphas can play games too…”
He kisses the place where Knar marked me.
“…and we play for keeps.”
Strong hands cup my breasts, stroking my taut nipples. His erection is stiff and hot against my bare skin. I don’t even try to put up a fight as he drags me back inside.
By the time Knar returns a few minutes later, I am spread out on my back in the middle of the nest. The other two alphas lounge on either side of me, kissing my breasts and toying with my pussy.
Renn is rubbing my clitoris in tight little circles while Bjor thrusts his middle finger deep inside, stroking that tender spot on my front wall.
They’ve already made me come several times, and the furs are soaked with my arousal.
For a while, Knar just stands in the doorway watching us, his eyes glowing with predatory hunger as his brethren prepare me for another round of mating. Then he comes to join us.
I don’t ask what he was doing outside, or mention everything I just overheard.
I don’t tell him he’s a bad alpha for tricking me, nor do I whisper that he really didn’t need to go to all that trouble.
I don’t say anything at all. I just open myself for him as wide as I can and take his perfect, pierced cock as deep as it will go.
And when at last he gives me his knot, I take that too, with a tremble and a broken cry.