17. Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
Halley
Heat makes time cruel.
It stretches seconds into whole eternities, then snaps them back with a single sharp breath that leaves me shaking.
My nest is heavy with my Pack’s scent, and it should soothe me. It doesn’t. It makes my mouth water and my skin ache with a wanting that has nowhere to go.
Right now, it’s me, alone with my body, my hormones, and an emptiness that keeps getting worse. My discarded clothes lie in a damp heap beside the nest. I’m naked beneath the blanket, though even the thin fabric against my overheated skin is becoming unbearable.
My last heat, the one Knox dragged to a halt by a syringe full of suppressants, has nothing on this. My belly cramps low and deep, gripping and releasing until my whole body feels punished for being alone. My thighs are slick and twinging, and my skin feels too tight over my bones.
Despite the mindless roll of my hips, I keep my hands clutched in the fabric of the nest and away from where I need them most. I won't touch myself. I can't risk making my heat worse before they can get here.
I know I'm being stubborn, I know, but with every pulse of need, I'm reminded that I’m supposed to have hands on me.
And teeth. Frack, I'm supposed to have four pairs of teeth biting down on my mating gland, finally sealing us together for life.
This is what we have been waiting for, so how can I start without them?
I try to hold on to the facts because facts are solid and my heat-addled brain is leaking out of my ears like brain soup.
Right. The facts.
Viper killed the General.
The motherfracker had it coming.
The Pack had to fix the mess before anyone panicked, retaliated, or decided my Pack were monsters and put a few hundred bullets in them for it. They had to deal with a dead body and face the consequences of toppling the leadership of a resistance on a whim.
All of that takes time, and with significant effort, I can come to understand the situation.
My Omega, however, does not give a flying frack.
She only knows that I’m in my nest, in heat, and my Alphas are not here.
Shade is here. My loyal, sweet, perfect Beta is sitting across the room… but if I let him in, I’ll lose what little control I still have. I’ll gorge myself on him with no hope of coming up for air.
The bond tugs at me, distant but pulsating with awareness. They keep checking in on me, pulling at our connection, looking for attention and acknowledgment. But I can't indulge them because the more I let myself feel them, the harder it is to be without them.
My hands claw at the surrounding fabric until I find one of Knox’s shirts. I fist it, drag it to my face, burrow my nose in it, and inhale like it's a drug that can soothe the fire in my core.
It doesn’t help.
It makes it worse because it smells like my Prime Alpha, and he's not here. It makes my stomach ache and my eyes sting.
Frack, I want him. I want his body on mine and his cock inside me, to see him lose his mind and take me the way he's always wanted to.
I am a quivering pile of want.
Irrational anger flares.
They made me wait.
They made this.
They made—
Heat. Heat.
My mind slips, and logic fractures.
Only feeling stays.
I’m hurt.
I’m burning.
I’m empty.
And the bond keeps tugging, tugging, tugging, telling me they’re close and not close and coming and not coming.
My Omega is enraged by it.
I bare my teeth and my nails dig into my own thigh, hard enough to hurt, because pain is something I can control.
If I don't focus, my mind will slip too far into heat, and the animal part of my brain doesn't understand why I can't sate the pulsating ache between my legs.
Touching myself will only make it worse.
Shade touching me will make it unbearable.
Frack. They have to hurry.
When they get here—
I squeeze my eyes shut and a broken laugh pushes out of me, breathless and shaking.
If they get here, I’m going to be so relieved I'll probably sob.
And then I’m going to be their living nightmare for making me wait.
My body stays curled in the nest, but my attention keeps lunging for the door. I listen for them. I scent the air for any hint of my missing Pack members. Heat rolls through me again, and my muscles lock tight as I bite down on a sound my pride refuses to let loose.
I've waited this long for them. I can wait another second and then the next.
"Oh, baby girl. Just try to breathe through it, yeah?" Shade says softly from somewhere beside me. I can't look at him. He's too fracking sexy with his clever brown eyes and pink lips.
I try to focus on breathing, like he suggested.
But breathing turns into panting.
Panting turns into shaking.
Breathing, panting, aching, needing, shaking. Again and again, until boots crunch over ice outside, the door rattles, and my whole body turns toward the sound with alert excitement.
Cold air spills into the room, and it hits my sweat-damp skin like pinpricks. My body reacts before I can think, tightening, throbbing, pulling toward the doorway as slick gushes down my thighs.
Knox steps in first.
He fills the frame with his broad shoulders.
His jaw is set like he has been holding himself together by force.
His knuckles look scraped, with freshly healed pink skin and smeared, drying blood.
There is mud on his sleeves. His face is determined in the way it gets when he's executing a plan. His eyes lock on me.
Blaze slides in right behind him, moving fast with clear eagerness. His gaze snaps to the nest and stays there. His chest rises and falls hard, and his lips move with excited whispers to himself.
"It's happening, it's happening, it's happening—"
Viper enters last, and he pauses on the threshold.
He looks clean enough to fool someone who doesn’t know he just killed another Alpha with his bare hands.
His hair is damp at the temples from sweat, and his shoulders sit rigidly.
There are bullet holes in his shirt with bloodstains around them.
I expected retaliation from the other soldiers, but despite knowing it would happen and that he healed instantly, it makes my heart hurt.
His eyes fix on me before dropping to my throat and the hands I have clenched in the blankets.
His expression is tight and controlled, but the bond tells on him.
Guilt, possession, stress, want, all tangled together.
My poor Alpha.
The door closes behind them. Weapons hit the table, and boots thud beside the door as they strip off everything that could snag or hurt me, and the sounds makes my body clench in anticipation.
My hips buck, desperate for friction to ease the aching. The fever makes my vision haze at the edges.
Knox takes two steps closer and stops.
"Princess," he says, and his voice lands heavy in the room. "Sorry we're late."
My body leans toward him, but my anger spikes at the same time.
I clamp the blanket higher and glare at the three Alphas like I am not so horny that I'm shaking from head to toe.
"You took too long," I say, aiming for imposing but sounding petulant instead.
Knox’s gaze drops to my breasts, exposed and peeking out from the blanket clutched to my chest, and his mouth parts. He licks his lips, eyes flashing vibrant red as he tastes the scent of my slick in the air. "Halley, we had to."
"I know you had to," I snap, and my voice comes out loud, and it makes my head throb. "I know you had to fix the problem you made."
Viper flinches like I hit him. I swallow down my next accusation. I really don't like the kicked puppy expression on my big Alpha's face.
My body lurches with another wave, and I press my knees together hard, trying to hold myself in place. My hips twitch anyway, and for the first time since my heat started, my hand dips between my legs.
I press the heel of my palm against my aching clit and grind down. My eyes roll back, and my face burns with the need, with the humiliation, and the fact that my traitorous Omega won't let me be angry at them for much longer. I need. I burn. And they're right there.
Knox’s voice stays calm. "We’re here now."
"Fantastic," I say brightly. "Should I congratulate you? Should I throw a party?"
"You’re being a petty brat." Shade laughs.
I internally wince. Perhaps I've been too harsh on Shade. The poor guy has really tried his best to look after me, and judging by the relief in his voice, I think he was genuinely concerned I would turn them all away in childish anger.
And I am angry, but I'm also feeling bad about making Viper guilty, and I'm desperate for my Pack to touch me and make me come.
However. A larger part of me wants revenge more.
I simply wish for them to feel a touch of the same misery they caused me. If that makes me a brat, then sure, but this spoiled brat is going to mess with them. Just for a bit. For as long as I can hold out.
"I'm in heat, I'm allowed to be petty," I snap, and gesture at myself. "You did this to me. With your stupid hot muscles and delicious scents. This is your problem. All of you."
Blaze grins, licking his lower lip and stepping closer to the nest. "Aww, has our little Omega been desperate for cock?"
I know he's teasing me, but I nod anyway. "It’s been awful. I was abandoned in my hour of need, and I will be accepting apologies now," I insist with a pout.
A low sound comes from Knox that is both restraint and amusement, and it makes my stomach flip. Just the sound of him makes my pulse race faster.
Viper finally speaks, voice careful and laden with guilt. "Pretty girl, I’m sorry."
The bond reacts to the apology, encouraging me to forgive him instantly, and I almost give in, which annoys me on principle. It was his dumb Alpha possessiveness which started my heat!
"Are you?" I ask, and my tone turns sweet on purpose. "Or are you sorry because you want to touch me and I’m about to make you beg?"
Viper stiffens. Shade's nose makes a sound that's almost laughter. Knox stays controlled, which makes me want to push harder.