Chapter 44
Ethan
How the fuck had I missed the pull I felt towards Nadia?
There was no way to dismiss it just as sexual right now. Desire was there, wrapping its silky hand around my dick and giving it a stroke, but there was more.
“Hey,” I said, unable to stop myself from moving closer. “Are you OK?”
“With which part?” she replied with a wry smile.
“Your first shift,” I said. “What you said…” With a shake of my head, I continued. “Everything.”
“Nadia.” It wasn’t often that you saw Tex looking completely shamefaced, but he did right now. “I’m sorry. I don’t know how to make it up to you.”
“With actions, not words, right, omega?” Grey crossed his arms as one eyebrow rose in question.
“That.” There was a confidence to our mate that wasn’t there before, and that was dead fucking sexy. “Everything’s been so rushed, so it makes sense that we’ve stumbled a bit. I’m going to get better at asking for what I need.”
“And we’re going to work on making that happen.”
I meant that sincerely, but being in the presence of the most beautiful naked woman I’d ever seen had the words coming out in a huskier voice than I intended. My eyes trailing down, taking in the way the moon illuminated every curve of her body also might’ve had something to do with it.
“That works both ways.” Nadia nodded decisively. “It’s like the moment I shifted, everything became so much clearer.” She met our collective gaze. “What you need is important too.”
“You probably shouldn’t bring that up right now,” Tex ground out.
Her focus dropped down, then her eyes widened as she took in the way all of our bodies were ready and willing to serve her.
“Sex is off the table.” As I said the words, not-so-little Ethan was ready to stage a mutiny. “We’ve proven we can get it together in the bedroom. It’s what’s outside it that needs work.”
“Well, my therapist said we should capitalise on our successes.” The way she moved as she drew closer.
It was like the joints of a human woman were replaced by something far more fluid.
My whole body jumped when her hand came to rest on my chest. “I mean, I just shifted successfully for the first time. Maybe we need to celebrate that?”
Her eyes shone with barely concealed mischief as she stared up at me.
“Love.” Curling my arm around her, holding my mate against me as the others formed a tight circle around Nadia, helped ease a terrible tension inside me. “There is nothing I want more than… Fuck.”
Long fingers trailed down my chest, then wrapped around my shaft so slowly I felt the point of contact for each one.
“Nadia…” Tex hissed, making clear he was copping the same treatment.
“All the stress of the last few days has kinda gotten in the way of something,” she said as she gave me a firm squeeze, then let go. Part of me wanted to whine in protest, but Grey’s hiss made clear he was her next victim. “You’re mine. All of you are mine.”
“Damn fucking straight.” I tilted her head my way, brushing my thumb against her bottom lip. “And I really, really want to kiss you right now.”
“Kiss me then.”
That note of challenge was all her wolf, which made me smile, right up until the point I did exactly as she requested.
Just a featherlight thing, like the brush of the breeze on her skin, but I was never going to hold back for long.
The wolf and I were in perfect agreement.
We needed to lunge forward, claim all that softness as ours.
We kissed her until our lips stung, until she nipped my bottom lip with her fangs, until we were forced to pull back and suck in breaths.
“Got some of that sweetness for me?” Tex rumbled.
With a wild grin, she wrapped her arms around his neck and tugged his head down to meet hers. Pulled from my grip, he cradled her against his chest like she was something precious, which tracked. Big hands smoothed down her bare spine until finally she pulled away to face Grey.
“You’re going to ask me if I want your mouth on mine, even though you know I do. If hearing me say how much I need to kiss you helps, ask and I’ll tell you.”
I’d never seen this side of Grey before. It felt like Nadia wasn’t the only one who’d had a transformation. He was at ease with his wolf for the first time, I realised. The way he stroked her face as he drew her closer made that clear.
“Then tell me,” she said.
Just a tiny little tremor in her voice, but my ear had become sensitised by it. Something told me that my mate would benefit from a lot more compliments.
“More than my next breath,” he said. “I can taste your scent, but that’s nothing compared to the feel of your lips on mine.”
“Seems like something we can help with.”
Tex hoisted Nadia up into his arms, her back to his chest, almost presenting her to Grey.
“Fuck’s sake, Tex…” I muttered. “Stop thinking with your dick. We’ve just had a kinda breakthrough—”
“And now I’m really fucking horny,” she said, looking back over her shoulder at me, leaving me to splutter. “Like you missed that part out in your whole shifting tutorial.”
“It wasn’t something I associated with the process before.” The pain of shifting was like a dim memory, because this time it just happened. It was like my wolf had been waiting for hers the entire time. “Now…”
My finger ran down her arm and that was almost an unreal process. Part of me was sure she’d never let me touch her again.
The other half was determined to deserve that honour every day of my life.
“All the pain of before,” I continued. “It’s like a nightmare and now I’ve woken up.”
That didn’t explain the dream-like haze that hung over me as I moved closer.
Pressing my lips to the nape of her neck, feeling the vibration of her moan before I heard it as she kissed Grey and Tex rained kisses down across her other shoulder.
We weren’t a proper pack, not yet, but tonight was the first step towards it.
“Someone should’ve thought to bring a blanket,” I said as things started to progress. “Don’t want your back to get scratched up if we take things further.”
“Or we could do this.”
All of us groaned as Nadia bent forward.
Her lips pressed against Grey’s hip, his hand already in her hair, bunching it up at the nape of her neck.
I barely registered that because Tex and I stood back a little to admire the sight before us.
That peach-shaped arse, and just between her thighs was a shadowy secret my packmate and I were dying to share.
“Lick our omega to her first orgasm,” Tex said, his hand twitching. “While I help ready her for our knots.” His thumb pressed into the crease between her arse and her thigh. “That what you want, omega?”
Her moan was muffled by the fact she was swallowing Grey’s dick.
“Gonna need to hear the words,” I growled.
“Fuck sake…” Grey hissed as she pulled free.
“Yes,” she panted. “Now. Need it.”
Her words snapped the leash I was using to hold myself back.
I was on my knees, feeling the grass and gumnuts pressing into them, before moving underneath her.
Pulling her down onto my face was like coming home.
The first lick had me going back for another and another.
I needed her taste, her grunt of pleasure, then the way she bucked into my face, wanting more friction.
My girl, my mate, my heart sang, right as I felt Tex’s fingers screwing inside her.
The subsequent splash of slick was sucked down as I went back for more.
Faster and faster we moved, conjuring the feel of my paws striking the earth.
We’d chased her all the way up into the hills, and now we needed to show her why it was worth being caught every time.
“Ethan…”
The way she said my name, I’d never get sick of that.
It just made me want to please her more, so my tongue flickered, teasing that little nub behind its hood, until her whole body went rigid.
I licked her through the first wave and then the next, not letting up until she finally shuddered to a stop.
“You’re up, mate.” I scrambled up and on my feet to see Tex smiling down at me. “You got our omega off. Seems right that you should be the one to knot her.”
My hand smoothed over Nadia’s hip as a sense of wonder hit me.
Seemed crazy after what we’d all gotten over, but for some reason this felt different.
Because I was done pretending I realised as I gripped the base of my cock.
That this was nothing more than a bit of fun, that I didn’t want to be balls deep in Nadia every time I was around her.
Dragging the head of my cock along her soaked seam, she let out a moan.
The sound was echoed by Grey, his hips thrusting faster, obviously close.
The warm wetness of her sucked me in, forcing my fingers to sink into her skin, right as I thrust forward.
“Shit…” I shook my head. “You feel too fucking good. Dunno how I’m gonna last.”
“You will because we’re done disappointing our mate,” Tex said with a growl.
Yeah. That.
Every pull backwards was like my heart being torn from my chest, but it only made the moment when I slammed deeper all the sweeter. Over and over I thrust, until I started to feel her tighten around me.
“Nope,” I said, thrusting deep, then grinding up against her entrance.
“You need to let me in.” Changing my angle slightly, I knew I’d be hitting that sweet spot inside her with every stroke.
“Let me in, omega.” Her hips pushed back, meeting me stroke for stroke, but it felt like I could only go so far.
Tex’s hand snaked downwards, obviously finding her clit.
I felt her flex around me, so I surged forward, but she wasn’t ready yet. “I’ll make it good for you.”
Pulling almost all the way out had my balls aching, but when I did so, she made a muffled sound of protest. Pushing backwards, it felt like she enveloped me and in the process, something flexed just wide enough to let my knot pop inside.
“Fuck…” I hissed. “I’ll never get used to this, ever.”
It felt like we all moved together then.
Grey, coming down Nadia’s throat and then after he’d brushed her tears away, Tex took his place.
Our thrusts were gentle, rocking her along, but despite all betas’ assumptions to the contrary, it’s the omega that sets the pace.
She grew more insistent, shuttling between the two of us, and we were swept up in her wake.
Forced to bury my fangs into my bottom lip, I held off through sheer will alone, right up until the moment I felt her twitch.
Shoving myself deeper, harder, I forced her over the edge.
Her strangled scream filled the air along with our panting breaths, and the moon bore witness.
To her pleasure and ours, watching us with its silvery eye when we finally fell to the ground in a messy heap.
Still attached to me, I cradled my mate in my arms, pressing a kiss to the back of her neck.
“If that’s the way you respond to shifting, there’s gonna be a lot of running in wolf form in your future,” I sighed.
“Promise?”
The twitch of her smile, the way she looked back at me, had me leaning over to kiss her.
“With everything I’ve got.”
We slept through the rest of the night, only to be woken by the sound of a car approaching.
“Heads up, we’ve got company,” I told the others as I moved to put myself between Nadia and what was surely the farmer that owned this field. Imagine my surprise when the Taylor pack jumped out of the car.
“We tracked you to your location using the sensor in Nadia’s arm,” Fen said, tossing us some clothes. As we scrambled to put them on, Haze threw a set of keys at Grey. My packmate caught them neatly.
“Your car is on the road over there,” he said. “Could’ve made it back in fur, but we figured you’d rather drive back after what happened last night. How are we all feeling?”
“Good.” Nadia smiled, then flushed. “Better than good. Please thank Riley for me.”
“Thank her yourself when you make it back to the institute,” Colt said. “I know you shifted successfully, but knowing our mate…”
He looked over at his brothers.
“This is just the beginning.”
“We know.” I pressed a kiss to my mate’s temple. “But we’re a pack now. You can get through anything if you do it together.”
As we headed towards the car, everyone unconsciously walking within arm’s length of each other, I felt an unfamiliar lightness in my chest. Hope, I realised. Fragile as a candle’s flame in a storm, strong as a bushfire.
“Ready?” I asked Nadia, opening the car door.
“Finally, I can say yes to that,” she said with a grin.