Chapter 13
A contented sigh seeps out of Dellie as she settles in against my shoulder. Zeke's grunts from the bottom of the bed are muffled by the doona while James works on his back. Allen's murmuring something quietly to Clarke as he carries our beta into the bathroom.
The door shuts gently behind them as our omega snuggles into me. "So, Bondi, you got a cuddly alpha, then?" Her voice is soft.
Shit. I just thought of her as 'our' omega. I tell my brain to hurry up and chill the fuck out.
Too soon. Way too soon.
I let a rakish grin form over my mouth. "Bondi, huh? Yeah, sure, Balga, the cuddliest. He's all about the omega snuggles."
She cackles into my chest. I laugh, and plant a kiss on top of her hair.
It all just feels so… easy. Don't think I've ever had things feel easy without working fucking hard for it. Don't even care that I'm the only one who hasn't got to…
Nope. Not going there. I mentally whack my alpha on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper, and remind him that she gets to pick who touches her and how, and we've got to be along for the ride so far, and that's a fucking privilege.
Her small hand rests against my cheek, guiding my face towards hers. "Where'd you go just now, Bondi?" she asks.
Fuck.
"N-nowhere, Balga, just zoned out for a minute."
She sits up straight and glares at me. "None of that, please," she says, her voice low but firm. She straddles me and cups my face in her hands. "You don't have to have the words, but please don't lie. I don't like liars."
My treacherous cock twitches. Down, boy.
There's a stiffness in my jaw that I can't shake out. "Sorry. My alpha is occasionally a bit, um, kinda a dickhead, to be honest. Just… telling him off."
Her hand strokes my face as she faces me and lowers herself over my lap, straddling me. I give her my most disarming grin. My cock twitches again, this time nudging her thigh.
She raises an eyebrow. My face feels hot.
Fuck, I'm being too much. I'm fucking this up.
Something that matters is about to snap. I can feel it. I can't stop it and I don't know how to fix it and I'm about to wreck it and it's my fault—
Dellie sighs as I glance away, and pulls me into a hug. "You're worse than me, Bondi," she murmurs into my ear.
"I just don't want to fuck this up." The quiet words spill out of the crack she somehow made inside me before I can stop them.
She stills against me, her breathing shallow, like if we're silent enough, we can pause this moment, never risking breaking it.
She turns her head, and breathes into my ear, "I don't want to fuck this up, either." She rests her cheek against mine. I lean against her.
There's another little crack in the darkness that lives inside me. My cock throbs again, ignoring my determined efforts to clamp it down.
She's just been knotted. She's not even in heat. She's going to be sore tomorrow. There will most likely be plenty of time for this later. Now get back in your fucking box, I snarl at my alpha from inside my head.
She breathes in sharply. Her fingertips graze my lower lip. I adjust myself so I'm leaning my forehead against hers. Her eyes are staring into mine.
Her lips move in a stilted whisper. I couldn't hear what she said.
"Do you… do you want… me?" My murmur is barely at the threshold of hearing.
"Yes," she breathes. There's something else though. I can't make it out. It almost sounded like all of you. She lifts her face to mine.
She kisses me, tenderly at first, but with a growing hunger. My alpha is slavering, desperate to emerge, to escalate the kiss, but I'm stronger than my alpha. I have to be. "Shhhh, Balga. It's okay. Plenty of time for that when you aren't freshly knotted."
She freezes. Tension radiates from her.
Oh fuck. I've done it now. They'll never forgive me. She'll freak out and run and it will be all my fault—
My alpha is growling at me.
"Does… does it bother you?" Her voice is tight. "Me… asking too much? Or… or me being… used?"
I draw her into my arms and hold her against my chest. She melts against me. I privately give thanks to a god I don't even believe in. "Oh, Balga. No. Not at all. The only thing that bothers me is that I thought you would be sore. I just don't want to hurt you."
Her body twitches as a shuddering sigh escapes. "And… and if I wasn't? And if my omega still wanted…"
I breathe steadily through her pause. Give her space. Let her fill it with her words when she's ready.
The mattress wobbles as Zeke shifts by the foot of the bed. James is glaring at me from over the top of her head.
She sighs again, her face flushed with embarrassment, her chest shuddering.
"Ugh! Why do I always do this?" she mutters to herself, burying her face in her hands.
James looks like he's on the verge of decking me until I wrap her in a hug.
"Is your omega still needing her alphas, Balga?" I murmur into her hair.
She nods without lifting her face.
"Um, Omega, you have six words, remember?" I ask, chuckling. I feel her laugh silently against my chest.
"Yes," she squeaks.
"Are you sore?"
She shakes her head. "No," she says, her voice growing a little louder.
"Hmmm." I plant a kiss on the top of her head. "And is that something your omega would like me to help her with?"
"Yes." Her voice is breathy, but there's something in her tone that tell me it wasn't the end of the sentence.
I got pretty good at picking up on when there was something unsaid in the air, back when I worked in the ER, and got better at it when I started working heat support with the rest of the pack. I raise her face to mine. Her eyes are bright, her lips flushed and open.
"Balga? Does your omega need her alphas? Like, more than one?"
She freezes for a moment like a frightened rabbit. Then her eyes drift closed. She takes a faltering breath, and nods a little stiffly, a hesitant "yes, more," falling from her lips.
I glance at James, who looks pointedly at Zeke. Searching for his eyes, I see a smile twitch over his mouth as I make eye contact with him.
"Shhhh, Omega. It's okay. You never have to be afraid to let us know what you need."
She buries her face in my chest and sighs. I stroke her back, my arms wrapping around her tiny frame. "Can Zeke help me give you what you need? While James makes sure we look after you properly?"
Zeke flushes, his normally sombre face breaking into a grin. James raises an eyebrow at me. She lifts her head to look in my direction, a small smile on her lips, and nods again.
"Yes," she says, her voice clearer.
She turns away from me towards Zeke and James. I can't see her expression. But judging from the way they scramble up the bed towards us, it must have said more than words ever could.