Chapter Forty-Three
Viper
"Pants off, pretty girl."
I ease Halley down onto the ground, and she shudders as my fingers hook into the waistband of her trousers.
She blinks up at me, eyes wide and glowing a stunning purple, then squirms with uncertainty. Her gaze flicks toward the tent entrance.
Shade hums low in his throat, stepping closer. “Hey, baby girl. Don’t get shy on us now.” His voice is velvety smooth, soothing but firm as he reassures her. “No one comes near this tent without our say so. Isn’t that right, brothers?”
Knox, Blaze, and I all grunt the affirmative. No threat touches, or even looks, at our Omega. Especially when she’s vulnerable like this. Never.
Halley exhales, her body softening between us as she lets that truth sink in.
His thumb strokes her cheek.
“That’s it,” Shade whispers. “Good girl.”
He leans in and kisses her languidly.
“You’re going to trust us to take care of every part of you, aren’t you?”
She nods, breathless and trembling in anticipation.
And we haven’t even touched her properly yet.
He nips her lower lip, then steps back.
“Boots off.”
She nods, then drags her tongue across her reddened lip, eyes dropping as she toes off her boots. With a slow roll of her hips, she shimmies her pants down to her ankles, baring herself inch by inch until she’s bare from the waist down.
“Mmm. C’mere,” I grunt, gathering her back into my arms, pressing her spine against my chest.
She tilts her head back, and looks up at me with adoration.
Fuck, I’d do anything for this creature.
“LT, show us how pretty our Omega is between her legs,” Shade instructs and I don’t have to be told twice.
Halley squeals as I hook an elbow underneath each knee, folding her in half and displaying her gorgeous pink folds to my brothers.
I lick my lips.
She’s glistening with slick.
The sight is delicious, and I want to bury my face in her cunt and eat her for hours as she comes again and again.
But we have a job to do. Shade and I have a side mission to execute.
I hoist her higher until I can press a wet kiss to her cheek in encouragement. Her skin is flushed and warm with the slightest hint of salt. Delicious.
“Princess…” Knox groans, the word dragged from somewhere deep in his chest. He’s staring at her pussy with startling hunger.
The Alpha has spent weeks watching us debauch his Omega. Seen her fucked and sucked and spilling slick. He’s been edging himself closer and closer to a breaking point.
Fucker just needs a nudge.
When Halley dropped to her knees for him, it cracked something open. Shattered the careful mental barrier Knox had built to keep himself distanced and controlled.
Now we need to keep the pressure steady. Encourage him to take another step forward.
He has to touch her. Feel how her body responds to him. Learn the truth his instincts already know. Halley is his Omega, and she was made for him. Once he feels it, there won’t be any going back.
His fingers twitch at his sides.
'Touch our Omega.' I project to the Prime Alpha, inclining my head to the splayed Omega in my arms.
His eyes go wide as if I've told him to wrestle with a snake instead of stroke the most precious pussy in existence.
"What if I'm too rough—"
"Knox,” Halley breathes, her voice high and mewling. “Please, I need you."
I lift a brow, voice low but cutting. “You hear your Omega. Are you really going to walk away from her? Again?”
His jaw flexes.
This is it.
The same moment, repeating itself. The one that broke him the first time. When she reached for him in that training room, all soft scent and trembling limbs, and he froze. Watched her cry out for comfort and didn’t move. Didn’t touch. Didn’t show her he cared.
It’s a different scenario, but achingly similar.
She’s still reaching, still asking, but this time he’s capable of answering. He’s ready. All he has to do is reach out and give her what she needs.
Knox’s eyes rise to meet mine, and they’re swimming with apprehension and fear, but it’s not paralyzing him anymore.
His hand trembles as it reaches for her, but the moment his fingers brush between her thighs, instinct takes over. He doesn’t think, just acts.
He pushes a finger into her.
Halley jerks in my arms with a startled cry. “Ah!”
Shade’s voice snaps across the tent. “Knox.”
Knox freezes.
“Fuck, man. Give the girl a chance to warm up,” he warns firmly, but it’s laced with soft understanding. The last thing we want to do is scare him off.
Knox’s eyes go wide, still glowing red with instinct, his whole body locked in place. “Shit… shit, I didn’t mean to—”
I rub my cheek against Halley’s, reassuring her that I’m still here. She’s safe. Her Pack is here and we’ll take care of her.
Knox’s hand is still between her legs, but it’s no longer moving. His chest is heaving harder than if he’d just sprinted through a firefight.
I get it. It’s her perfume, it’s driving his instincts wild and he’s already battling his control.
'Calm down. Breathe through your mouth so her scent doesn't mess with your head. She's fine. She likes it. Keep going, just a bit slower.' I coach him directly through our connection.
He nods minutely, and presses back into her.
We watch as his digit disappears inside our Omega, and then pulls out with slick coating his hand. He works in and out of her at a slow pace.
Down our bond, I can feel trust and longing radiating from Halley.
“Keep going, Alpha,” she whispers, voice delicate and wrecked. “Oh… please…”
Her hips wiggle, trying to draw him deeper, to coax him into faster motion.
"Rut, she feels amazing," he says, his voice gruff. "So warm and wet."
Blaze grunts, and my head snaps towards him. He's leaning back, his eyes heavy-lidded, watching us as he palms his erection through his pants.
"Don't you dare undress," I warn. "We’re focusing on getting her off, nothing else."
"S’right, we can have an orgy later," he stalks closer to Halley, eyes locked on where Knox is penetrating her. “You have such a needy little pussy, don’t you Sparkles? Will you let me fuck it later?”
I feel her tense, and then relax, her head nodding, her cheeks flushed.
"Good girl."
Magic words. They never fail. The moment they’re uttered, her perfume thickens in the air, heady and sweet, curling through the tente.
“Come here, troublemaker,” Shade calls, voice affectionate but edged with command. He throws an arm around Blaze’s neck and drags him in tight, locking him into a casual headlock that’s anything but rough.
“You gonna behave for me?”
It’s that tone.
The one Shade uses when he slips into his kink.
It has both Halley and Blaze straightening, eyes wide and bodies alert.
Blaze pants like a mutt in heat, grinning up at our Beta.
“Yes, Daddy. I’ll play nice.”
“That’s my good boy.”
The effect is instant.
Blaze whimpers, flushed and eager. Halley echoes his whimper, her perfume somehow thickening further.
Magic words, indeed.
'What do I do now?' Knox asks, ignoring the role play our Pack mates are engaged in. In fact, he looks utterly pained.
I frown. 'What do you mean? Stretch her out. Tease her clit. Get her ready to take your cock.'
Knox drives his finger in and out of her, brows drawn tight in concentration. His movements are rough, too forceful, lacking rhythm or care. He’s focused, painfully so, but it’s not landing the way she needs.
Halley, like the good girl she is, takes it without complaint. Her thighs tremble in my grip, but she doesn’t try to pull away. Not that she could. I’ve got her spread open, folded and pinned, her body helpless under mine. Beautiful in her obedience.
“Sir,” she breathes, using the moniker she hasn’t used sincerely since training camp. The word makes all of us still.
He exhales hard, jaw tight, the scar across his nose pulling as he stares between her legs like he’s trying to solve a riddle with his hands.
Still, his rhythm doesn’t improve. Jerky. Uncertain. Too mechanical.
I frown.
His features drop, and he pulls his wet finger out of her.
An emotion that isn't mine hits me between my ribs. Embarrassment, shame, frustration. It’s raw and bright. It’s coming from Knox in waves.
The shame is almost choking.
He wants to please her. I can see the longing on his face, but there's uncertainty stopping him.
Halley figures it out before I do.
“Knox?” she asks gently, her voice low, uncertain. “Is this the first time you’ve ever…?”
Knox's nostrils flare and his jaw clenches.
For a second, I think he’s going to bolt. Walk straight out of the tent without a single word. But he doesn’t move. He stays, breathing deeply.
When he finally speaks, it’s through clenched teeth.
“Yes.”
Halley blinks, startled. Her wide eyes turn up to me.
I ask, “Are you saying you’ve never touched a woman before?”
Our Prime Alpha exhales heavily.
“Correct, LT.”
Behind Knox, a strangled sound escapes from Blaze as Shade shoves two fingers past his lips.
“Not a word out of you,” Shade murmurs, voice dangerously calm. “Or I’ll gag you on more than my fingers.”
Not much of a threat when it comes to Blaze, judging by the garbled, “yes please, Daddy,” he manages around Shade’s digits.
Knox doesn’t react to the exchange. He’s too far inside his own head, locked down.
And suddenly, the full picture stretches before me.
His reluctance to be with Halley is only about being too rough. It’s not just about fear of hurting her. He’s been holding back because he doesn’t know how he’ll react to sex at all.
‘I’m a failure,’ he growls across the bond, frustration laced with self-loathing. ‘What kind of Prime Alpha doesn’t know how to fuck his Omega?’
The shame hits like a gut-punch, but I hold steady.
I think back. Years and years of shared history flashing through my mind. The bar on base, the way soldiers would flirt, throw themselves at him like he was their idol. All the chances. All the attention and temptation.
He never gave in. Not once.
His self-discipline never cracked.
Not until Halley.
Fuck.