Chapter 41
The Smell of Them
CORIN
Watching others make love was never on my radar before. It didn’t rank in fantasies, nor dreams. If anyone asked, I’d have returned a polite non-answer and moved on.
Maybe it’s different when one cares about the others involved? I can’t say I love Dan yet, but the potential exists. My love for Johanna has never been in doubt, but how I love her has changed and expanded over the years, to the point that it’s unmeasurable.
The two of them together epitomize beauty.
I lean against the far wall of the bedroom that currently houses Johanna’s belongings, though she hasn’t slept here in days.
She chose this room because it’s where Nathan bit Dan all of a day ago.
Thirty hours? Twenty-eight? I’ve lost count, except it’s early evening; we spent hours just being together, getting more comfortable in twos and fours.
The rest of us didn’t care which bed, so here we are.
Here they are. On the bed, still clothed, though Johanna’s silly slippers slid off the counterpane early on. They’re all kisses and gentle touches over clothes, and soft murmured “do you remember?”
But gods, the smell of them. Johanna’s lust-tinged cranberry forms a muted counterpoint in the glorious, woodsy aroma invisibly billowing from Dan. Nathan’s and my scents barely register in comparison.
My sweatpants leave little to the imagination regarding my reaction to the sights and scents. The same is true of Nathan, though he’s sitting on a chair, which lets him hide it better. Why he’s trying, I don’t know.
Well, perhaps I do, but I’m leaving the matter for him to decide.
Now is for the basic plan we came up with over lazy discussions, laughter, and even playing a game or two over the day.
Dan and Johanna will make love, ending with him knotting her. Since it’s his first time, Nathan and I both deferred in his favor, though he suggested some neutral way of picking who got to knot her.
Ultimately, Johanna said it should be her choice, and she chose him. End of argument.
While she’s knotted, we’ll all bite her, I’ll bite Dan, and she’ll try to bite me.
Simple enough in theory, trickier in execution, no doubt. With all Nathan’s decades experience as a dissolution lawyer, he noted that, if we can’t coordinate the logistics, we probably shouldn’t be bonding in the first place.
I’ll be more than content with four out of five bites. If Johanna doesn’t manage to make ours permanent, so be it. I’m happy to bite her as often as necessary to keep temporary bonds going, as long as she’s willing.
My feet are bare, toes cold against the floor. A good thing. Helps keep me grounded; it would be so easy to slip into what-ifs about alternate possibilities, if Johanna and I had managed to get to this point while Max was alive.
We didn’t. Impossible to go back and change anything.
Instead, I focus on Johanna and Dan: the way her head tilts back as he nuzzles her neck; their hands slipping under each other’s shirts, pushing fabric up in ripples to reveal soft beige and fawn-colored skin; the soft coos and groans as they discover—or, rather, rediscover,
And try to ignore the one bond left unaddressed in our plans for the evening.
A possible sixth bite.
Johanna giggles, a frothy sound unlike anything she’s made in the last year or more, as she pulls Dan’s shirt over his head. She glances my way as he returns the favor, smiling as her gaze meets mine and sending an added rush of cranberry through the room.
Evidently, she’s enjoying being watched as much as I’m heating up from watching her. Dan pays me no mind that I can tell, but he touches the nearly healed mark on his arm, then encourages Johanna to touch it as well. The latter makes him twitch as though shocked by static electricity.
Nathan likewise jerks, throat working. His head tilts back, eyes closed, and a blissful smile dances across his lips. When he opens his eyes he catches me watching him.
Standing, he adjusts his pants, though there’s no hiding that the scene has the same effect on him as on me, then strolls over, chin held high.
“You’re okay with this?” He nods at the entwined figures on the bed.
“It’s her choice and he makes her happy.
” I shrug. He’s the one who told Dan and me days ago that a pack is only as strong as the relationship between any two of its members.
For Johanna and I to have a pack, we have to be willing to share with our mates.
She wants a pack—and I’m increasingly of her mind.
“And that’s enough?”
“It doesn’t hurt that I like him. He brings strengths I didn’t expect, resources that I don’t have, and his inside is as attractive as his outside.
” A glance at the bed shows the breadth of Dan’s back as he nuzzles Johanna’s breast, but it’s his stepping up yesterday when I couldn’t that sticks most in mind.
“Isn’t that the best kind of pack—where we complement each other? ”
“He’s more than I expected.” Nathan runs a finger along the place on his arm matching his mark on Dan.
“You were thinking a pack of just you and Johanna and Max, then just you and Johanna?” In his revelation of courting Max yesterday, there was no mention of me.
“I didn’t realize you were in the mix. I’m not sure Max did, either.”
“Good.” I shift, angling to face Nathan straight on, even though it reduces my ability to watch Dan and Johanna. Their moans and the drift of their mingled scent offers enough evidence of their activities.
Nathan raises his eyebrows.
“I wouldn’t have wanted him to worry.” I wish Max could be here—even though he’d probably have grabbed his phone and headed out, telling us to call him when it was safe to return. “I loved him, too. As a cousin and friend and all-but-packmate.”
“He was your omega.” Understanding flashes in Nathan’s eyes.
I’m not sure I agree, but Max certainly enjoyed non-sexual omega activities, particularly cuddling with me, Johanna, the girls, and anyone else he could corral. “In enough ways.”
“He could have been ours.” Nathan touches the scars on his neck. “You’re set on biting Dan?”
“He asked.” I turn away from Nathan to find Dan and Johanna cuddling and glancing our way.
Dan did ask earlier, both of us aware that he wants a temporary bond with me, partly for Johanna’s sake, but also because another bond will give him a better idea of whether he can live without supplementing his daily dose of suppressors as part of a pack.
I don’t mind; if things continue as they are, Dan and I will care for each sooner than later.
“And me?” Nathan’s voice lowers, softens, as he shifts so that only inches separate us.
“You haven’t asked.”
“You’re not going to offer?” He’s just enough shorter that he has to look up at me, something he clearly dislikes.
“Which—to bite you, or allow you to bite me?” I ask.
“I thought I was strong enough, dominant enough, to lead the pack.” Nathan’s nostrils flare—I’m not sure what he catches, in my scent or the mix of Dan and Johanna, but some tension drains from his shoulders as he shrugs. “But I give in. The cats have it, as Dan said. You’re lead, if you want me.”
An offer and a challenge: he needs to know why I value him as much as why I value Dan.
“Of course we want you—I want you—in the pack we’re building,” I say. “You bring strengths we need.”
“Strengths? I wallowed for ages after my mates died.” Nathan runs a shaky hand over his smooth head. “Lost myself in rut when left alone with Johanna.”
“You had the determination to hold on when your world shattered. You stayed strong and pursued a new pack when chance offered”—I catch his gaze and hold it, willing him to hear and understand—“and would’ve succeeded if Max hadn’t collapsed.
You held out against your alpha’s need to bond Johanna long enough for us to arrive. Do not undervalue yourself. We won’t.”
He’s speechless, eyes glittering with moisture.
“If you hadn’t pushed Johanna to consider making the bond with me permanent, I don’t think she would have, not yet.” I offer my hand. “Whatever happens, I’m grateful you put that on the table. It’s more than I’ve managed in all the time I’ve known her.”
“Your steadiness, Dan’s kindness, my persistence, and Johanna’s strength.
” Nathan grabs my hand and moves in closer so the backs of each hand press against the other’s chest. Heat pours off his body.
A thin layer of sweat covers his face and chest, dampening my hand.
We’re so close we can feel each breath the other takes.
“Bite me, too. Temporary bond only—I won’t bite you back until she’s ready, we’re all ready, for permanent bonds—but I want in on this in all ways. ”
Equal heat fills his face as our gazes meet. Unexpected but welcome attraction flows between us, lust clear in his scent, not just Dan’s and Johanna’s.
“Where do you want the bite?” I ask.
He touches his neck, along the scars from his earlier mates. “For me, we’re one pack, even though I’m the only one lucky enough to know all of us.”
“Very well.” My finger follows his, tracing an arc overlapping the lower scar where his neck and shoulder meet. Then, I gesture at his hard cock pushing against soft fabric of his pants, brushing mine as we stand close. “In pain or pleasure?”
“By all means, pleasure, the more so if it’s mutual.” He mirrors my gesture.
Leaning in, I kiss him. Our hands are still clenched between us. There’s no grabbing or touching, just lips meeting lips, then tongue stroking tongue.
Before I know it, our hands part, and we each dive in hard.
Fingers dig into shoulders, chests press together, and we’re in an embrace.
Neither of us really leads; we just respond to each other.
That’s probably how we’ll always be. I may be prime alpha, but he’ll be right at my heels, pushing me to do more, be better.
Pulling back, I press a finger against his lips.
This is Johanna’s room, but she’s got a side table similar to the one next to my bed, complete with a drawer that probably contains some of her toy collection—and lube.
Things on the bed have changed mightily since I last looked that way.
Dan sits with his back to the headboard, legs spread wide but pants still on.
Johanna’s naked in front of him, leaning back as one of his hands strokes her breasts and the other fingers her clit.
He’s kissing her neck, but they’re both watching me with Nathan. Us.
“You don’t mind providing a show, do you?” Johanna asks.
Nathan smiles, head tilting my way as if to deferring to me.
“As you like to say, turnabout is fair play,” I respond. “Got any lube?”
She nods.
Within moments, I’m back at Nathan’s side, bottle in hand.
Then, his cock’s in my lubed-up fist and vice-versa.
We kiss again, mouths and hands matching as we lurch from pleasure to pleasure.
He hisses when I hold him too tight, so I relax my grip and speed up instead, earning a long moan and a heavy flare of his lust-filled scent as a reward.
When he adjusts to get a firmer grip on my cock, I shiver, then pull back as I stroke him harder.
“Come first,” I urge, but do not command. “Let me take you all the way and bite before I lose myself.”
Brushing one more kiss on his lips, I move to his neck and trace his first mates’ teeth marks with my tongue.
He wraps his free hand over mine, showing me the pace and hold that pushes him ever higher.
His breath comes in gasps. We’re both sweaty, chests sliding against each other as we allow space for hands rubbing cocks.
His scent flares with unmistakable pleasure as his body jerks. Cum spills over my hand and body. I bite, teeth digging deep.
The taste of copper mixed with his scent fills my mouth.
Then, there he is, linked to me, soul to soul, in all his unexpected wonder. An instant later, I get a sense of Dan, a slightly more distant connection, filtered as it is through Nathan.
Nathan’s hand tightens on my cock as his pleasure spills over into me, pushing me over the brink. Ecstasy rebounds back and forth between us, slowly lowering to the point that reality dawns. We wear matching grins and cum streaks as we turn to the only unmarked, unconnected person remaining.
Our Johanna.