Chapter 29
Grey
I’d made a big speech about being there for Nadia when she emerged from her room.
So why the fuck was I standing here, looking down at her, unsure what the hell to do?
Take a deep breath. I could almost hear my foster mother’s voice inside my head.
See what’s in front of you, Grey, not what you assume.
You know what needs to be done. You’ve got good instincts.
It’s just a matter of learning to trust them.
Our mate is scared, the wolf growled. Her perfume is souring. Fix that.
Right.
I sat down abruptly on the other side of Nadia, then thought furiously about what to do next.
None of this was hard for Tex. His hand rubbed circles on Nadia’s back and she leaned into his chest, eyelids falling to half-mast. Physical touch, I realised, she seemed to like that.
Glancing down, I noticed her feet, complete with chipped pink nail polish.
Growing up with other foster kids, I’d watched enough rom coms to know women seemed to like foot rubs.
I could do that, I told myself. My fingers spasmed, somehow losing the ability to do as I instructed.
Because I’d never, ever touched a woman before Nadia.
Too scared to when I was a teenager. My wolf was an unpredictable thing and he made his intentions clear any time a girl seemed interested in me.
Baring his teeth, hackles up, I wondered how these betas could be so fucking oblivious.
I was dangerous, out of control, so letting my guard down enough to have sex was impossible.
So why did something settle in my chest the minute I smoothed a palm over Nadia’s foot?
Because she belongs to us, the wolf growled.
Mine to watch closely, catching the moment when her eyes went wide.
Silver flickered around her iris, making clear her wolf was watching everything I did and that just egged my beast on.
He wanted to lure her forth. When she shifted, we’d run through the forests in the hills, under the pale moonlight.
He’d shove his nose into the ruff of her fur and breathe deep her scent.
My lungs did the same thing right now, the sour scent of pain easing into something sharp but sweet.
“You don’t have to…” she murmured, right before my thumb pressed hard into the arch of her foot. “OK, yeah, you totally need to keep doing that.”
“That’s just what we’ll do, right, Grey?” Tex asked, shooting me a meaningful look over her shoulder as he moved to start massaging the tight muscles there.
“Right.”
I didn’t need him pushing me. Watching Nadia’s lips part, her breath coming slower, was more than enough incentive.
The tiny little moan of pleasure was an unexpected achievement and I knew then I needed to hear it over and over again.
I shifted, turning to face her and just for a second, she frowned.
Because she thought I was done, I realised, right as I placed both feet on my lap.
My cock was hard, aching and pressing against the fabric of my shorts, but I ignored it.
Both thumbs rubbed the tight fascia of the soles of her feet, forcing it to relax.
“OK, this is amazing,” she breathed, eyes closed now. “If I knew having two guys massage me was this good, I’d have booked a double appointment with massage therapists, not sexual surrogates.”
“No charge,” Tex replied, leaning in closer to dig his fingers in, then brushing his lips across the shell of her ear. “And we are available any time you need to release some tension.”
“Release some tension?” She chuckled at that, then looked back over her shoulder at him with sleepy eyes. “Is that what we’re calling it now?” Her hips moved. “Seems like you’re enjoying this as much as I am, big guy.”
“Always,” Tex said, his voice growing deeper.
“I’m always going to respond if I’m touching you.
Shit, just being within ten feet gives me a semi.
” A gentle kiss was pressed to her neck and I felt the little shiver that went all the way down to her toes.
“Alphas are put on this earth to serve their omega. That means we’re ready and willing. ”
“Tex.” I glared at him. “Now’s not the time. Nadia’s been through a lot.”
“And you’re both doing a really good job of distracting me from that.” Leaning back against Tex, his arms went around her as she stared at me through half closed eyes. “Unless you’ve got some trick up your sleeve that can help me turn into a wolf right this second?”
We could, the wolf said. If we command her—
That’s not going to happen, I snapped back. We will never force her to do something so fucking dangerous.
“No?” she said, something a little arch in her tone. “Then it’s just a matter of getting through each day, doing what Riley’s team advises me to do. But…” She reached behind, pulling Tex’s head down so his lips hovered over her. “Right now, I just want to feel good. We need to feel good, right?”
“Nothing I want more, omega,” he growled, right before placing a hard kiss on her lips.
I watched the proceedings as if from behind a glass wall. They made quite the picture kissing. Tex’s hand curled around her throat, keeping her where she was as he made a very thorough inspection of her mouth. Right as I was about to pull away, leave them to it, Nadia turned back to me.
“And what about you, Grey?”
Disengaging from Tex, she crawled closer and in that second, I could see the wolf she would become.
Graceful, fluid in her movement, she came to a stop just in front of me.
The brown of her irises had turned to grey and that had my wolf shifting inside me.
Challenge, that’s what he saw, so he pressed forward.
My hand wrapped around her jaw. Her skin was like velvet as I smoothed a thumb over her cheek.
I was touching her, touching my omega, and my heart was thudding too damn fast in response.
“What about me?” That was the wolf asking the question, not me. “What do you need from me, my mate?”
“The day we met, you didn’t let me touch you.” Her head twisted in my grip to stare up at me. “Ethan was fine with it, but you weren’t. Has that changed?”
Yes, I wanted to snap. Every day when I woke up, until I went to sleep at night, I ached for her, but I didn’t say that.
“I…” She frowned slightly at my response.
That micro rejection had me wanting to shy away.
My hard-coded responses were rarely helpful, so I leaned forward.
“I’ve spent my life waiting for you. It scares the shit out of me, how much I want you, but somehow that just makes the need more intense.
So if you’re asking if I’m like Tex? If I walk around unable to keep my eyes off you, cataloguing every curve, every expression in my brain, then yeah, Nadia, things have changed.
I’ve never touched another woman and I never will, because whether or not I’m the right alpha for you, in my heart, there will only ever be you. ”
How did I expect Nadia to respond? Not going perfectly still as she stared at me, that was certain. I swallowed, muscles tensing, ready to pull away, but the wolf locked them tight, not letting me move for a second. Perhaps because he saw what I didn’t.
The moment when my mate broke my hold and lunged towards me.
Hands stroked through my hair as her mouth brushed against mine.
Fuck, her mouth was so damn soft. Little kisses delivered so fast I struggled to keep up, so my arms went around her, pinning her to my chest. Parting her lips was an instinct I didn’t know I possessed.
Just needed part of me inside her. Right now, it was my tongue, hers sliding against mine in a sensual sweep that had my whole body stiffening.
Her legs parted, and then she straddled my lap and that was when my whole world shattered.
The weight of her pussy pressing against my aching cock dragged a growl from the depths of my soul.
“Seems like things have changed.” When she pulled back, a hectic light flickered in her eyes. “You didn’t make that sound last time.”
“My sounds don’t matter.” Plucking her from my lap, I laid her down on the couch, studying the form hinted at through the voluminous sweats. “Yours do. Right now, I want to strip you bare and lick every damn inch of you, but if now’s not the time…”
My voice trailed away as she pulled her sweatshirt over her head.
Fuck.
I knew she wasn’t wearing a bra by the jiggle of her breasts, but knowing and seeing were two different things.
“OK, I’m kinda getting self-conscious here.”
Her hands rose, ready to cover herself, which was my cue to grab them by the wrists.
Stretching her arms above her head, Tex quickly took over.
Nipples wrinkled in response to the cool air and for just a second, I thought about changing the temperature in the room.
That, or I could solve the situation like this.
“I can wait,” I told her, even as I crawled up her body. “I can wait forever, if that’s what you need.”
“Waiting is definitely not what I want,” she said in a breathy voice. “I just want to feel good again. Can you do that for me?” Her eyes flicked from me to Tex.
“Whenever and however you want, omega,” he replied, moving to press a kiss to her lips.
As she sighed into his mouth, my hands moved.
Just letting the fingertips trace the shape of her breasts, because touching Nadia was like placing your palms before a fire.
The hot flames thawed me, but as those nerve endings came to life, so did pain.
A small hiss escaped me, right as I turned my hands over to brush over her nipples.
A muffled moan told me what I needed to know, so I shifted again, tracing smaller and smaller circles around her nipples, before reaching my prize.
Thumbs pressed those hard points into fingers, dragging a deeper moan from her as her back arched up into my touch.
Academically I knew what I was doing. That nerve endings in her nipples could also stimulate the ones in her clit.
Blood would swell into her breasts as I stimulated them more, making her more sensitive.
That wasn’t what I was thinking as I dropped lower.
The wolf rode me hard because it was his tongue that flicked out, then pressed against one nipple as we sucked it in.
His fangs elongated, pressing into the skin on either side, right as my throat began to work.
Harder, faster, in time with her little moans, until I forced myself free, only to move over to the other breast to repeat the same process.
Tex must’ve freed her hands because one came to rest on the back of my head.
That small gesture was like a lightning bolt to my heart.
For a minute, all I could do was sit there and feel her fingers caressing my skull.
More, my heart demanded, as if it was a wolf, it was one that had been starved of all it needed.
I pressed a gentle kiss to her nipple, then looked down at my mate.
“I think we said something about stripping you bare?”
My fingers went to her waistband and paused, waiting for her sharp little nod before pulling them free. Palm pressed into her abdomen, there was no way of stopping me from making a possessive sweep of her body. As I was transfixed by the sight, the feel of her, she went up on her elbows.
“I thought we were all getting naked. If you belong to me…” She seemed to be still processing that idea. “Then I want to see everything you’ve got.” Rolling upwards, her hand went to the hem of my shirt then paused to silently ask permission, just like I had.
Was I going to say yes? The thought of saying no to my mate seemed insane and yet that customary reticence was still there. Don’t touch, don’t look, don’t engage. But if I obeyed that mantra, I’d hurt Nadia, so instead, I reached behind and grabbed a handful of my shirt before pulling it off.
“Oh…” That impish smile, her hands hitting my chest and smoothing across my shoulders.
“So that’s what you were hiding. Just so you know, it was worth the wait.
” My abdomen jumped as she traced the shape of the muscles there.
“You’re fucking gorgeous.” A glance back at Tex, who was already shirtless. “You both are.”
“Nothing compared to you.” He rose up, pulling the rest of his clothes off and if I was in any doubt about Nadia’s mood, it was extinguished by the way she followed the bob of his cock as he stepped free of his pants.
“You’re right. We can’t do shit about what’s going on, but in this moment.
” He moved behind her, pressing his body against her back.
“I think we can make you forget all that crap for at least an hour or two, right, Grey?”
The two of them stared at me and before I could formulate a response, the wolf had me standing up.
Shoes kicked off, it was his claws that eased under my waistband before we pushed both my underwear and shorts down.
My knot throbbed in response her expression, shock, a little concern, and then a greedy look that had her starting forward, pressing her palm to my hip.
“You are my mate,” the wolf said. “Whatever you need, I will provide.”
“You.” She glanced back at Tex. “Both of you. Now, please, I need—”
But she didn’t need to say a thing. As my lips crashed down on hers, my tongue invading her mouth, I knew. For some reason, unworthy males had failed to even consider her pleasure, but I would never make the same mistake. Kissing her neck, raking my fangs across the skin there, I didn’t bite down.
“I know what you need,” the wolf said. “Now lie back so I can give it to you.”